Almost 60-year-old Mike Tyson is ready to take on Jake Paul in a sanctioned boxing match in Arlington, Texas. Yes, you heard that right, this is not an exhibition.
Well, except for the fact that the combatants will be using 14-ounce gloves as opposed to the normal 10-ounce gloves, the rounds will be two minutes instead of three and there will be only 8 rounds as opposed to 10 or 12.
But aside from that, its a real fight. Or maybe its not.
The fight was the creation of the manager of Tyson and Paul. As the Sports Business Journal retold, Tyson’s manager proposed a fight with Paul on PPV. However, Paul’s manager, former UFC employee Nakisa Bidarian had a deal brewing. He had sold Netflix to stream one of Paul’s boxing matches as the streaming service is (or was) dipping its toe into live events.
Paul’s first opponent on Netflix would be a full cannonball into the deep end. Tyson’s last time in the ring was an exhibition on a quasi-boxing, quasi-mini concert PPV where he danced around with Roy Jones, Jr.. But, neither fighter hit the other with a punch of consequence. So, everyone ended up a winner.
Notably, on that same card in 2020, it was Paul that stunned the world with a knockout of former basketball player Nate Robinson. Obviously, there was a height and weight disparity that Paul took advantage of and while he has handpicked opponents (yes, even Nate Diaz) that he could dominate, Tyson presents a much bigger barrier.
Tyson is in advanced in age and his last real fight was in 2005. Yet, his presence and more importantly his legend makes him a formidable opponent that could advance Paul’s boxing career.
This fight may be smoke and mirrors, but make no mistake about it, people are interested. Notably, tickets for this event at AT&T Stadium in Arlington are outpacing the ticket sales for the Cowboys-Eagles game this year.
Also flourishing with this event – gambling. The handle for this event is large and at this point at least two people have made bets of $500K on Paul (who is the current -225 favorite). Although an underdog, Tyson has been bet down from +225 to +175 which means that a lot of people are starting to bet Tyson to win. Hence, the underdog value goes down due to the money on Tyson.
What can we expect in the fight? No one really knows. Tyson looks great and is undoubtedly in shape but that does not equate to boxing shape. While people love living in the past, boxing is not one of those sports where you can say a guy “has still got it” because it usually leaves them before age 30. As for Paul, if he loses to Tyson, he will be ridiculed but he will continue on as the social media influencer and will still be doing big shows in boxing if he wants to continue.
Perhaps Netflix is the true winner here. One might expect huge viewership, streaming numbers for the service. And, with that, its clear it would want to produce those viewership numbers (report only the good information, right) for prospective advertisers.
The fight we didn’t know we wanted is here and it looks to be the biggest boxing event of the year. Who knew at the start of 2024?
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