Mike Tyson to fight Jake Paul

When I saw that the YouTuber turned celebrity boxer Jake Paul is going to fight Mike Tyson on 20 July, broadcast live on Netflix, my first thought was: is this a joke? But I quickly realised that, like much of contemporary life, it was too stupid to be a joke, and so must be real. My second thought was: wouldn’t it be great to see Tyson – a former heavyweight champion – tenderise Paul’s body with some hooks, duck, then unleash the most savage-looking uppercut you’ve seen on his jaw? Maybe Iron Mike could even bite his ear off as well, just for old times’ sake.

Unfortunately for me and other misty-eyed boxing fans, Tyson will be 58 by the time the fight comes around, so that’s probably not going to happen. What is probably going to happen is that Paul will box at a range that’s too far for his opponent to reach until the old man he’s facing gets tired, then he’ll either knock him out or the match will be declared a draw.

You could look at this fight and see it as the canary in the coalmine for respectable, high-level boxing. If some annoying YouTuber fighting a retired boxer about 30 years his senior is going to be one of the most-watched fights of the year, doesn’t that show how far the real deal has fallen?


Not so. According to the 2021 Harris Poll, it’s the fourth most popular sport in America, ahead of MMA, and behind only American football, baseball and basketball. Over here in the UK, the EY Sports Engagement Index has boxing at No 8.

But since 2018, when Paul had his first fight, influencer boxing has also exploded in popularity. Followers of the sub-genre will be familiar with such colossal battles as Jake’s brother, Logan, v KSI, Salt Papi v Halal Ham, I Did a Thing v TheOdd1sOut and Uncle Pizza v YuddyGangTV. Tellingly, since his first fight, Jake Paul has more than doubled his net worth from $21m to $45m,mostly from returns from his boxing career.

There’s a huge amount of money riding on not just boxing, but this new, bastageised, influencer form of it. People watch traditional boxing for the skill, athleticism, gore and spectacle. Now there’s a version you can watch that takes away the skill, athleticism and gore, but has ramped up the spectacle to its most bombastic apex.……

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...yson-influencer-boxing?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other