The Iron Mike vs. El Gallo de Dorado, or professional boxer Mike Tyson will go up against influencer and recently turned professional boxer Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium, Arlington Texas on November 15. The fight is highly anticipated for many, but remains one bathed in controversy.
This particular fight has been hyped to extreme levels, obtaining a wild grip on the media with Netflix streaming it live on its platform to millions of subscriptions and Jake Paul being a famous social media celebrity across Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. But of course everyone is watching the fight take place only to witness the return to glory of Iron Mike from his retirement in 2005.
The dilemma of all professional athletes is how aging will affect their career and depending on the sport this factor dramatically reduces the window of competition for these athletes. As they grow older, peaking and eventually dipping past their prime, younger athletes fill the space and eventually crowd them out. As disappointing as it was to see Tyson retire from a fruitful 20 year long career, he was simply outgrowing the sport, wanting to spend time with his family and newly born child. He was able to establish and embellish a memorable legacy with a collection of adoring and supportive fans.
In his humble goodbye message after losing to Kevin Mcbirde in 2005, Tyson stated from a Youtube video by the Ultimate Mike Tyson account, “I got the ability to stay in shape, but I don’t got the fight and guts in me anymore…I’m more conscious of my children than those guys, looking after my parents…I’m not going to disrespect this sport anymore by losing this caliber of a fight.”
But he will disrespect the sport no longer as the fight of the century is about to occur nearly 20 years past his official retirement and 4 years after his exhibition or less competitive display match against Roy Jones Jr in 2020. However, at 58 years young Tyson is reentering the ring for what could possibly be his final match with a prime 27 year old Paul.
Both parties share a deep respect for one another and both promise in the attempt to knock one another unconscious with Tyson being the competitively furious beast and Paul willing to provide a good show. With the obvious age disparity at the forefront of concern, the threat of altering brain chemistry or potential brain damage due to Paul’s intentions was voiced by Nathan Howarth, Development and Operations Director at Concussion Legacy Foundation in the UK.
“You can’t imagine it will have a positive impact on his [Mike Tyson] brain. We know that the brain’s ability to recover seems to decrease as you get older,” said Howarth.
The sheer fact that such unfair matchmaking exists is baffling considering Paul is early in his career and hasn’t had the experience to develop such a prestigious status as Tyson. It is potentially dangerous for Tyson to be continuing at his age, even with the level of experience knocking out much tougher guys and training consistently this year to get into better shape. Gabriel Duthoy, an Iron Mike super fan and boxing enjoyer, is concerned with this topic.
“Anyone can set up a fight without having to let’s say earn their ranking is a little weird because most boxers work their whole lives and Paul here just kind of came in and all of a sudden gets a big fight,” said Duthoy.
Paul should be fighting someone his own size, or age for that matter. The only reason Paul could arrange such a battle is due to his influence, creating a circus for cheap entertainment instead of keeping his competitive integrity to the sport.
Not even mentioning Tyson recently enduring a health scare in May. According to Bet, his punctured ulcer caused him to bleed out violently on a flight to Los Angeles. Even admitting himself he nearly died. Following that he lost 26 pounds in 11 days, forcing him to inevitably postpone the fight originally planned to take place July 20 of this year.
The only feasible reason Tyson would pursue such a fight even after his health concerns and multiple warnings, is the same as everything humans do. For Tyson it is the money and this doesn’t sit well with sophomore and Woodbridge high school wrestler Kevin Salaita, who is experienced with the nature of these similarly duel-like sports.
“Not many people talk about him [Mike Tyson] anymore. And I feel like this will gain him a lot of that recognition and I think it’s just that extra money…I don’t think he’s in it for the reward because I think he knows himself that he’s going to lose this fight,” said Salaita.
Indeed based on the circumstances it isn’t that impossible for Tyson to end up on top, but because of how unfair this fight is his odds of winning are slim. Further, although there is a pretty high risk, Tyson could further cement his legacy as one of the greatest boxers to ever live.
But even if god forbid, Paul does defeat Tyson, there is no way Paul’s reputation wins during the aftermath of this battle. As it will be really embarrassing that he destroyed a nearly 60 years young man. On the other hand if he loses, it will be even more pathetic as he lost to a retired boxer who is 30 years older. It is a lose-lose situation for Paul which makes the great Iron Mike the underdog going into this fight.
“Wrestling and boxing are relatively similar because they’re both the forms of [martial] arts…they’re really big mental battles…but this is just a whole money scheme,” said Salaita.
Salaita is correct as Paul has orchestrated a huge scheme to bleed money from Tyson, harvesting older viewers who are nostalgic of Tyson’s former glory and clashing two different eras of boxing. For a more intense, fair and competitive battle go watch the WHS Wrestling team games during the winter season, as they offer far more integrity than this particular fight.
In the end this fight will be a pearly spectacle and amusement for boxing fans across the globe. Who knows, the outcome isn’t set in stone by mere predictions and there is no doubt Tyson has trained the hardest he ever has since 2005. There is definitely a huge skill and experience gap that isn’t in Paul’s favor. Maybe Tyson might even bite Paul’s ear off, or feed him to his pet tiger, there is no telling as the only thing we can do is gaze to Netflix or be one of the 60,000 people at AT&T stadium on November 15th. Praying to god that Paul will be retired.
