If you read any of what I write you are likely already aware of the fact that I do not have a lot of love for this new brand of boxing that seems to revolve purely around making money. These fights normally involve people that are not boxers but are famous for other reasons. I do believe people should be able to make money any way that they see fit but to me, these strings of fights done mostly by Jake Paul have denigrated the "sweet science."
When Jake Paul said that he wanted to fight Mike Tyson initially I was really excited about it because I would love to see Jake get bashed up but there are a lot of reasons why that wont happen and what we are more likely to get is an embarrassingly slow fight that could end up destroying Mike's legacy as one of the GOATs.
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The obvious factor is that Tyson is nearly 60 years old. Put him against almost any other 60 year old on the face of the earth and he would almost certainly destroy 99% of them, but Jake Paul is a fit 27-year old. This difference alone is really all that we need to know that despite the fact that Mike was a destroyer of faces in his 20's that he isn't going to be able to do the same thing with Jake, even though Jake is far from a world-class fighter.
We need to keep in mind that when Mike was dominating everyone in the field back in the 80's and early 90's, he was in his early 20's and had almost limitless cardio. Jake likely has extremely good cardio right now and Tyson, no matter how much he works on it and has been working on it, simply wont be able to match that.
Punching power of course is really important, as is the technical know-how involved in lining up punches and knowing how to avoid the punches of your opponent.
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Only in fake boxing would the amount of insta-followers be on the tale of the tape
Tyson is also shorter and heavier than Paul so this means he will have to expend more energy just for a shot at a punch. If Jake is smart, and I believe he is, he will use this to his advantage in the early rounds and simply gas Tyson out. This will not make for entertaining boxing but come on now guys, this was unlikely to be exciting from the very start. The fact that Paul and Tyson seem to be good buddies doesn't help matters either. There is always going to be speculation that just like when Logan fought Mayweather, that they have a secret, yet contractual agreement, to not KO the other. At the end of the day this is going to make a ton of money for Jake Paul and probably more importantly, for Tyson as well.
The fight takes place in a mere 9 days and honestly, I don't think I will even bother to go down to the sports bar where they have paid what is bound to be an insane amount of money to be able to legally show it to patrons. I think if you wait for the highlights the following day that that will be good enough.
Call me a pessimist if you want to, but I don't believe there will be much in the way of highlights at all anyway. Mike's promo videos are impressive when he is sparring or working on a heavy bag but these TikTok's are only 30 seconds long. How will Mike actually perform when is is chasing down someone who is in better shape than him and is less than half his age?
I know a lot of the world is hoping for one of those "lights out!" punches that Tyson was so famous for in his prime, but we are 30 years past Tyson's prime. If you are old enough imagine something physical that you were good at in your youth and then go outside and give it a try. I bet you injure yourself.
On the flip side of my pessimism, if this ends up being a complete shit-show perhaps the world will start to turn their backs on these exhibition matches that are designed intentionally to fleece people out of money and then we can return to watching actual boxing with the true best in the world talent involved.