Former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson, boxing match with Internet celebrity Paul, will be held on July 20, US time, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, yesterday the media also announced some rules for this match, such as, a total of 8 rounds, and each round is 2 minutes, knockouts are allowed in the game, and fighters are not allowed to wear helmets.
Although there is no public announcement about the appearance fee of the two, according to some professional media predictions, it is conservatively estimated that it should reach 8 figures, that is, tens of millions of dollars in income, of course, this does not include advertising endorsements, and PPV, that is, the income of paid live broadcasts, in short, this game, for the two of them, no matter who wins or loses, they can make a lot of money.
Previously, it has been believed that Tyson played such a match entirely for money and might cooperate with Paul's first fake exhibition match, but yesterday in an interview with the British "Sun", Tyson denied this view, saying that in order to prepare for this match, he has "sacrificed" a lot, including 6 weeks without sex with his wife.
When asked by reporters about the reason, the 58-year-old Tyson said that he needs to maintain self-discipline, which is very important, after all, he is old, if he was young, he may not care about this aspect, but now he needs to be restrained, this game with Paul, is still very important for himself.
In addition to this, Tyson has now quit smoking, because smoking affects his cardiopulmonary function, which also affects his physical fitness, after all, he and Paul have an age difference of 31 years, and if the fight is played until the last eight rounds, it is important for Tyson to maintain good fitness.
From these two points, Tyson still attaches great importance to this match, not as the outside world thinks, just an entertaining boxing match, however, although Tyson is fully prepared, but he has not played for a long time, and the last match is in 2020, an exhibition match with Roy Jones Jr.
The last real professional fight was back in 2005, when Tyson lost to Kevin McBride, and the 27-year-old Paul, who has a 9-1 record as a boxer, last lost in February 2023, so there is no doubt that the younger Paul has the advantage in terms of form and fitness.