It says something that several US states have banned betting on today’s fight between boxing’s Mike Tyson and attention’s Jake Paul. You cannot place a bet in New York, for example, or a wager in Colorado, where gaming commissioners are treating the event as something akin to an exhibition. That is despite the fight’s official stamp of approval by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, but then anything goes in Texas.
The fight is dressed up as a professional boxing bout, but it is easy to see why some inside the sport feel uneasy. The two outcomes of a genuinely brutal contest would be: a 27-year-old gym jock beats up a sickly 58-year-old grandfather; or one of the most ruthless boxers of all time knocks out an out-of-depth YouTuber. Either way, the optics aren’t great.
Which is why it’s unlikely either of those things will happen. Both boxers will wear heavy 14oz gloves to slow down hands and cushion impacts, rather than the standard 10oz gloves. The fight will take place across eight two-minute rounds, rather than the usual 12 three-minute rounds. It is officially sanctioned but it is also designed to avoid genuine horror.
The build-up has been filled with scepticism from people asking whether this is a genuine boxing bout or a wrestling-esque soap opera with its storyline already written.
“I’ve heard and believe that there is something in the contract which means Tyson can’t even try and hurt him,” Carl Froch told the Metro. “I’m sure if Tyson did land a big left or right hook on the chin of Jake Paul then he could render him unconscious … I can’t really see that happening, though. In my view it’s all fixed in advance for Paul, and Tyson won’t have the opportunity to do that.”
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