Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will go head to head in the ring this weekend. Picture: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
The sport of boxing has over the years never been short of its array of colourful, controversial characters and news-makers for both the right and wrong reasons.
The legendary Muhammad Ali, with his well-documented collection of humorous chirps, a motor mouth designed to unsettle opponents and his clowning in and out of the ring is a prime example and comes to mind immediately.
A fight between a professional wrestler, Hulk Hogan, and a boxer, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in the Rocky franchise movies also raised some brows, and any number of crossover or exhibition bouts over the years.
But an officially sanctioned made-for-TV professional bout between a 27-year-old You-Tube influencer turned professional boxer Jake “Problem Child” Paul, and the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson, 58, in Arlington, Texas, in the early hours of the morning SA-time tomorrow, is the limit for me.
As a boxing purist, that fight to me, belongs on reality TV and I am not sure I will bother to interrupt my sleep to watch the fight, which is available on live-streaming to a global audience of millions.
Initially, the fight was to be classified as an exhibition bout – and it should have stayed that way quite frankly – with 18-ounce gloves, protective headgear and an outcome that would not be reflected on their respective professional records.
On request of the fighters, however, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations approved the sanctioning of the scrap as an official professional fight.
Even the rules have been modified to suit the occasion. The fight is scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to three-minute rounds, knockouts are allowed and the combatants will use 14-ounce gloves.
The purses have not officially been disclosed by the promoters, but it has been speculated that Paul will rake in $40 million, with Tyson getting around $20 million.
The big-talking, tattooed Paul fancies himself as quite the boxer, with an unblemished record of 10-1 (seven knockouts), while Tyson last laced up the gloves in an official bout 19 years ago before quitting the sport.
Tyson (50-6 – 44 kos) cannot be anything close to the fearsome fighter he once was as he borders on pensionable age, but in his prime he would have dispatched Paul with the greatest of ease.
It is that Mike Tyson I choose to remember, not the man who took on one fight too many primarily for financial reasons.
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