At best a crude pantomime, at worst a little dangerous – the sports entertainment absurdity that is Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson takes place on Friday amid a chorus of disapproval from the boxing industry.
The bout pits Paul, a 10-1 professional fighter and social media celebrity, against Tyson, the former heavyweight champion of the world.
The fascination, or at least one of them, stems from the fact that Paul is a novice boxer, and Tyson, for a time in the 1980s and early 1990s, was the most feared man in the sport. The talent gap is enormous.
Levelling matters up is the fact that Tyson is 58, has suffered with health problems, and last boxed professionally in 2005 when he was battered into submission by journeymen like Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. At that stage he was a three-round fighter on his best night – and that was 20 years ago.
Tyson’s mythology as the “baddest man on the planet” has long outlived his ability to back it up and despite Paul’s limitations, at 27, he is the younger man by 31 years.
"This is dangerous, irresponsible and, in my opinion, disrespectful to the sport of boxing,” said Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, who has revealed he is considering leaving the arena once his fighter Katie Taylor is done with her rematch against Amanda Serrano in the co-main event.
"I am in awe of [Tyson], he's one of my favourite ever fighters, one of the greatest of all time – but he's a 58-year-old man. You only need to speak to him and look at him to know this guy should not be in a ring again."
In saner times it’s an idea that might not have made it out of the planning room. Yet through the lens of late-2024 Americana it is set to fill the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Texas and has been picked up by Netflix.
The unease of boxing’s power brokers is simple to understand. They spend their careers attempting to lure in the casual sports fan, precisely the type of viewer who might be tempted to fire up Netflix this weekend.
So, when what is essentially little more than a gimmick underwhelms or the worst-case scenario that a participant is injured, it has the potential to do major damage to their business.
“I caution myself, I don’t look at it as boxing, I look at it as them just using the boxing ring as a format,” said Todd DeBoef of US promotional company Top Rank.
That format was born in 2017 when Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor raked in almost half a billion dollars between them for a boxing versus MMA crossover bout in which the latter never stood a chance.
That event proved that a huge market existed and there has been a steady flow of plastic prizefighting ever since.
That has ranged from the low-rent Misfits franchise up to more credible contests like Tyson Fury and then Anthony Joshua fighting the ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou – a crossover fight Hearn had fewer qualms about promoting.
Jake and brother Logan Paul have been at the forefront of it. Logan fought Mayweather before pivoting into the WWE, while Jake has successfully transformed himself from internet prankster and “Gen Z” influencer into a full-time combat athlete.
Seeking to monetise his fame he staged several lucrative bouts and racked up a series of victories over retired MMA fighters and other US sports stars.
On the one occasion he faced an actual boxer he lost on points against Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia. Although Fury, the half-brother of former heavyweight champion Tyson, is little more than a novice himself and is better known in the UK for being on reality show Love Island.
“Iron” Mike, whose chequered past is well-documented, has reinvented himself as an entrepreneur and avuncular pundit, a far cry from the venomous heel who once told Lennox Lewis he wanted to “eat his children”.
Paul’s fans are his fans. They’d pay to watch him fight anyone – and they have done in their droves.
By bringing in Tyson – at a reported cost of $20 million – he has tapped into the mainstream and sprinkled some stardust on his brand.
Understandably, many believe this is little more than cosplay, and the fact that the fight is set for eight two-minute rounds with 14oz gloves helps bolster that impression.
A bout more WWE than authentic boxing – that Tyson will huff and puff for the crowd, going hard to the body and light to the head, before succumbing to a pre-determined result and everyone goes home happy, with the protagonists many millions the richer.
As crazy as it sounds, that’s actually a desirable outcome – a multi-million-dollar heist certainly being more palatable than the notion of Paul exploiting a 31-year age gap against a much-loved and pensionable former fighter to elevate his own celebrity.
Of course, the idea that Tyson might roll back years and deliver an unscripted knockout on behalf of boomers everywhere is what is really driving sales.
And, if recent events have taught us anything, it’s that age is no barrier to victorious comebacks in the US.
