As we all know, legendary heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will appear at Arlington Stadium, Texas on July 20 against Internet celebrity star Jack Paul. The most talked-about thing is that what was originally conceived as an exhibition match was approved by the Texas Department of Sports Regulations, and the two sides will compete in a true professional boxing format.
For Tyson, he hasn't set foot in the professional arena since losing to Irish fighter Kevin McBride in 2005, and despite sharing the stage with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, it was more like a "scripted" battle in advance that didn't say much to many.
Tyson is now 57 years old and will celebrate his 58th birthday next month, which also means that he will fight Paul at the age of 58, on the contrary, Paul is only 27 years old, and the difference between the two is as much as 31 years, so the Tyson vs Paul fight will break a 61-year record in his field, that is, the boxing confrontation with the largest age gap.
The previous record was in 1963 when the famous boxing champion Archie Moore faced Mike Dibias, when Moore was 49 years old and Dibias was 25 years old, the age difference between the two was 24 years, and in that match, the former professional wrestler Di Bias made his first foray into professional boxing, and was beaten in three rounds and lost to a split eye, and Moore officially retired after winning the fight.
What will happen to the Tyson vs. Paul battle? This is probably the focus of everyone's heated discussion. Interestingly, when the rules were finalized, Tyson was still slightly ahead of the odds offered by the bookmakers this week, suggesting that in the eyes of most fans, Tyson was still "enough" to beat Paul even though he was old.
However, not everyone thinks so, and former world super middleweight champion Carl "Cobra" Floch feels that it will be very bad for Tyson as the two sides compete under professional boxing rules, and in Floicch's view, age means form, and although Paul is not a pure professional fighter, he can cause Tyson huge problems with his young advantage.
"At first I thought it was just an exhibition match, and no matter what the outcome was, it wouldn't affect both sides, especially Tyson, who was still strong in the boxing world, but when the rules were set, it became a fight that smelled of money," Florch said. You can't blame both sides, I think Tyson may have aged badly after 19 years away from boxing. If it's just an exhibition match, and the two sides end up hugging and shaking hands, now I'm worried about Tyson, will he really be able to face a young opponent?"
Florch pointed out that as early as the end of Tyson's career, his fitness would collapse if he competed for more than 3 rounds, not to mention that Ben is now 60 years old, so Florch is still worried about Tyson.
"Paul is largely underrated, and Tyson is really old, and this aging is not as simple as a fighter passing his prime, but starting to move into the ranks of old people," Florge said. I'm very impressed with Tyson's training videos, but stepping into the ring is another matter, and I think Tyson's chances are in one or two rounds, during which he has plenty of fuel in the tank, but what about after two rounds? If he can't knock Paul down, Tyson is likely to suffer a heavy blow, which he did later in his career. ”