“My wife keeps saying, ‘You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to do this.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I do have to do this,’ ” he tells me, stressing that the millions he’s reportedly making from the fight “will not change my life financially in any way.”
The age difference between the two is an inescapable, circuslike element in how the fight has been promoted and covered. The thirty-one-year age gap between Tyson and Paul is reminiscent of the multi-decade age gap presented in a fictional fight in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa. The difference is also greater than that in another major fight in Tyson’s career, when, at twenty-one, he decimated thirty-eight-year-old Larry Holmes with a fourth-round knockout. Tyson takes a breath before considering any parallels between this fight and the one from 1988. He is unbothered being on the other side of a younger challenger. Tyson, who is a summa cum laude scholar when it comes to the history of boxing, notes one “big fundamental difference” between the bouts. There are levels to these mind games, and no one has weaponized the word YouTuber quite like him.
Anyway, what do you think of the leaked footage of Mike Tyson’s training? Do you expect Tyson to put Jake Paul in a fix? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. For more boxing updates, follow EssentiallySports!
After his win over Frazier, Tyson was booked to fight José Ribalta at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1986. Ribalta would hit Tyson in the body throughout the fight. Tyson knocked down Ribalta three times in the 2nd, 8th, and box 10th round when the referee called the fight off. Tyson would go on to say that Ribalta was his toughest fight commenting, “I hit Jose Ribalta with everything, and he took everything and kept coming back for more. Jose Ribalta stood toe to toe with me. He was very strong in the clinches,” and “Ribalta was a game fighter who actually engaged me. I felt nauseous from all Ribalta’s body blows, even hours after the fight. I never felt that much general pain again.”
Whether or not he deserves our sympathy is a fair question. It is easy, and not entirely unjustified, to look at Mr. Tyson, his left eye ringed by a Maori tattoo, his head shaved clean, and see a self-pitying, self-justifying man who squandered his talent and good fortune and caused much more hurt than his brutal profession required. He started out as a street criminal in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and was plucked from juvenile detention by Mr. D’Amato and his associates, who disciplined the young man’s natural volatility and turned him into a fighter.
In January 1999, Tyson returned to the ring for a match against the South African Francois Botha. This match also ended in controversy. While Botha initially controlled the fight, Tyson allegedly attempted to break Botha’s arms during a tie-up and both boxers were cautioned by the referee in the ill-tempered bout. Botha was ahead on points on all scorecards and was confident enough to mock Tyson as the fight continued. Nonetheless, Tyson landed a straight right hand in the fifth round that knocked out Botha. Critics noticed Tyson stopped using the bob and weave defense altogether following this return. Promoting the fight on Secaucus, New Jersey television station WWOR-TV, Tyson launched into an expletive-laden tirade that forced sports anchor Russ Salzberg to cut the interview short.
When you include pre-fight entrances and post-fight decisions and interviews, it usually rounds up to about an hour of action altogether – which is great for television, as a single bout can easily fit into a one-hour program block.
Welterweight: Professional boxing competition is divided into weight divisions in order to provide a more “level playing field.” Any boxer weighing 140lbs or less can compete in and is classified as a welterweight.
In 2014, though, Tyson finally fessed up about the real reason for his tattoo. As Sportcasting recounts, Tyson said of his dark period, “I just hated myself… I literally wanted to deface myself.” Capricious though it was, the tattoo was also his first step toward making positive choices.
Play Possum: This is when a fighter acts like he is hurt or tired in an attempt to lure his opponent in and carelessly leave himself open, while attempting to take advantage of the “vulnerable” fighter.
It was Tyson’s 50th professional win and his 44th KO (not counting the stoppage of Andrew Golota, which was changed to a no contest after Tyson failed the post-fight drug test for marijuana). It was also the final victory of his career.
Don’t ask Tyson if he’s an icon, or what he thinks his legacy looks like. Those two words make him wildly uncomfortable. “What is an icon?” he asks after a doctor’s appointment in late May. “I’m still going to die; I’m still going to starve if I don’t eat. Suppose I go on hard times and become a bum on the street. Am I still an icon? What is my legacy? Nothing but an ego. Who cares about my legacy? My legacy can’t buy me a hot dog. Legacy is going to get me nothing.”
