By Mark Baldwin
IT’S an overused phrase. But maybe this weekend, it applies more than ever. The circus is truly back in town. A travelling charade that just needs a host city, a willing commission, and enough gullible people to buy into the latest slice of content creation. Showbiz is probably the only word you need to describe what we will get in Texas.
The 80,000 fans that will be in attendance and millions more on Netflix will watch a YouTuber take on a former world heavyweight champion who, outside of a bizarre exhibition with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, hasn’t had a fight of any description in nearly 20 years. The millions will watch. But it is likely to be an extremely uncomfortable watch. Certainly for those who still care about the credibility of their sport.
Mike Tyson is just two years shy of turning 60. Jake Paul, the so-called YouTube sensation, has just eleven professional fights behind him against very carefully selected opposition. The two polar opposites have been allowed to align in a sport that does the farcical and the ridiculous better than anything else on planet Earth. It is a fight that is bereft of any real meaning or credibility whatsoever. But in boxing, when does that ever matter?
Paul is seemingly dedicated to his new plaything. At least to a point. But there is more than a touch of the cynical of how he plies his new trade. That applies this weekend also.
Tyson is now an old man. He was an old fighter when his original career petered out in the depressing and pitiful way it did in 2005. The nineteen years since his last meaningful fight have only made him even older. It is an obvious statement of fact that many seem to ignore.
The ever-loyal Tyson fanatics hoping to see the old Tyson will only see an old man trying to remember the past, but, in reality, he will likely be humbled and haunted by the present. Sadly, and more than worryingly, we won’t even see the fighter who was battered into submission by the distinctly average Kevin McBride all those years ago.
Even that version of Tyson has long since gone. McBride and Danny Williams were the final nails in his fighting coffin. But the end had been coming long before that. Tyson had become a woeful and pitiful imitation of the formidable fighter he once was.
Shorter rounds. Bigger gloves. An indication that the fight this weekend at the AT&T Stadium has imminent danger attached to it. Modified rules that are there to minimise the risk. And the damage. A large dose of risk assessment that probably says the fight shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
The Tyson fanbase that is still dining out on nostalgia will hope that their man can find something resembling his old form. But in reality, they should just hope that Tyson escapes unscathed with his health still intact.
Jake Paul talks about Canelo Alvarez and winning world titles. Words that are beyond deluded, but if Paul keeps winning, boxing will likely find a way of giving him an opportunity to test just how deluded his words really are. The level of opposition won’t matter one single iota. The number of eyes he brings will be the deciding factor in how far Paul goes in the sport.
The boxing skills of Paul might be extremely limited, but the numbers he brings are seemingly unlimited. Trust me, that will matter more than anything else. The latest Netflix special could make this weekend’s fight the most-watched fight of all time. A truly depressing thought in many ways.
Hopefully, the majority that will tune in to watch a fight that has been labelled a freak show will also have eyes on the co-feature, the much-anticipated rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
A proper fight that deserves far more media and fan attention than it will actually get. Taylor and Serrano will be paid very handsomely for their efforts. For that, we can quite justifiably thank Jake Paul.
A Jake Paul victory will likely bring a lot more of the same. Sadly, even a defeat to Tyson is unlikely to be the end of the gravy train.
But Tyson is unlikely to have enough left to derail the carnival. The odds say the fight won’t go the scheduled eight rounds. Those odds also say that Jake Paul will beat Mike Tyson. Boxing historians will not be so comfortable with that kind of statement. But Tyson has been picked for a reason.
The millions of dollars the fight will generate are only part of the story. If he wins, Paul will dine out on his victory until his dying days. It will also feed the ego enough to look for something even bigger. But eventually, he will find that boxing will tell him enough is enough.
With each passing second, the chances of a Tyson victory will greatly diminish. Unless Tyson unleashes something from another century, his fate will probably be decided by sheer exhaustion and a cumbersome punch that will land with enough force to topple over a fighter who clearly should be doing something else with his life.
Hopefully, at least for the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, this is where his fighting career finally ends. But for Jake Paul, the obscene viewership will ensure the travelling circus will land somewhere else in the not-so-distant future. George Foreman anyone?
