Why You Should Watch Mike Tyson v Jake Paul

Why You Should Watch Mike Tyson v Jake Paul

GuyWhoLikesSport

…but not for the reasons that you think.

The Mike Tyson v Jake Paul main event (set for 16 November) is probably going to be a gigantic disappointment, even though it’s (absurdly) been sanctioned as a professional bout by the Texas Commission.

As an aside, you would think the Texas Commission would have stopped sanctioning fights with guys who have clearly been compromised after what Manny Pacquaio did to Antonio Margarito’s already damaged eye, not to mention Edwin Valero..

Anyway, moving onto the combatants in the main event.

Mike Tyson was a cultural icon. The “Mike Tyson Comeback ™” has been the best business in boxing since 1995, when Tyson beat Peter McNeely in his first fight after getting out of jail.

Even though Tyson is one of the most famous boxers of all time, I think you could make an argument that he is the most overrated athlete in history (I have made that argument).

The only hall-of-famer he beat was 38-year-old Larry Holmes who was only still fighting because he had been robbed by Don King,

he never weathered a shred of adversity in the ring, and was basically finished as an elite fighter by 24.

He’s now 58 and looks that old on the mitts.

As for Jake Paul, Paul is not a legitimate professional boxer. At least not one with any real prospects of success in the sport.

Calling him a professional boxer because his fights are sanctioned is like comparing the cook at McDonalds and Gordon Ramsay because they both make food for a living.

You’re technically right, but there are levels to it.

Paul has poor cardio, jabs as much as Rocky Balboa (doesn’t jab), gets offended if an opponent’s punch misses, and will go exactly as far as his right hand takes him.

If I were betting, this is how the main event will go: Tyson will have a few flurries early and Paul will look a bit in trouble. Paul won’t throw anything with any real venom because he doesn’t want to knock out a nearly 60 year old icon.

Mercifully it’ll end in a whimper and the judges, who will not be scoring the bout legitimately, will call it a draw.

Tyson will say Paul is the smartest fighter he’s ever been in with (which would be a lie. He fought Lennox fucking Lewis.) and Paul will say that it was an honour to share the ring with the greatest heavyweight of all-time (that would also be a lie. Tyson is not a top-15 all-time heavyweight).

The whole way through it, I’ll be as comfortable as AJ Soprano and Tony Hinchcliffe would be at a Puerto Rican day parade.

Despite how overrated Tyson is, I don’t want anyone’s already compromised brain to get any worse.

So, why should you watch it?

Two reasons.

Firstly, the co-feature is a rematch of one of the definitive fights of the last decade.

In April 2022, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano made history becoming the first women’s fight to headline Madison Square Garden.

Taylor is Ireland’s greatest living, active athlete (Conor McGregor is barely living and is not active) while Serrano is a seven-weight world champion.

Both were established legends, two of the greatest combatants in women’s boxing history, who circled each other for years before 2022.

It was also the first time that two women made over seven figures for a fight.

Taylor v Serrano was big deal.

It did not disappoint.

It was a rock-em sock-em robot type of fight, with neither woman taking a backward step. They both threw punches in bunches and still stayed as responsible defensively as one possibly could given the amount of volume they were both putting out.

At its best, boxing is high-speed chess. This fight along with Fury v Usyk are two of the best examples of that description from the 2020s. More often, fights are either high-speed or chess. You need two masters of the medium to achieve the blend, and with Taylor and Serrano, that’s what we got.

Now we get to see it again.

Secondly, it’s on Netflix.

This might not particularly seem like a big deal to you, but you’re wrong.

I am critical of Paul as a fighter because he isn’t a legitimate one, and I am bored of him calling out Canelo Alvarez. Canelo is in the easy-money phase of his career, but what he would do to Paul would be unpleasant to watch.

What Paul is, though, is a genuine disruptor.

He was the key person behind pulling enough money together to make Taylor v Serrano in the first place, as his promotional outfit Most Valuable Promotions has poured serious resources into women’s boxing.

He has regularly called out the UFC and Dana White for their astonishingly poor payment structure for fighters (Dana pays himself quite handsomely).

He has even set a standard for other combat sports with his own payment practices. Most notably, when his event vs Hasim Rahman Jr fell through because of issues with Rahman, Paul still made sure to pay down-bill fighters at least half of what they were owed and did not hold them to their contracts.

There’s not a single other promotion in fighting, from Matchroom to the UFC, that is that fighter friendly.

Netflix is his next disruption.

Big-time boxing has been bought by Saudi Arabia and is broadcast by DAZN.

Eventually, like all the despotic regimes who have got into boxing in the past, either the money or the interest will dry up and the Saudis will leave.

If Netflix were to get involved, they would be able to compete with Saudi Arabia today and might be in a position to define the sport post-Saudi Arabia.

With Showtime and HBO leaving boxing and ESPN’s agreement with Top Rank coming up, boxing needs new broadcasting blood in the post-Saudi world.

Amazon Prime is in with a relationship with Al Haymon’s PBC.

If this Paul v Tyson event is a success, Netflix might very well seek to join them and get even further into the fight business.

Netflix will soon be the WWE’s sole home.

The UFC’s agreement with ESPN is also nearly up and the WWE and UFC both exist under the TKO Umbrella. The UFC on Netflix seems like a natural evolution.

Why not add big time boxing to the portfolio?

That would be two of the biggest companies in the world, with the two of the biggest consumer reaches of anyone, entering into the boxing business.

Realistically, I assume that it would be bad for consumers. It would probably mean that the Mayweather v Pacquaio issue of boxers only fighting fighters who are aligned with their promoter and/or broadcaster would re-emerge after Saudi money has erased it.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the journey goes. And Paul v Tyson might be the first step.

So, Mike Tyson v Jake Paul will probably suck.

But you should watch the event anyway, because of what will be an astonishing co-main event and because it might be the start of broadcasting history as Netflix gets into the live sports business.

 

 

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