Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Co-Managing Editor
The Tiger vs. The Cougar, The Rooster vs. The Chicken, and The Problem Child vs. The Baddest Man Alive.
For the past year and a half, the whole world has been waiting for one moment, one conflict, one fight that could change the course of boxing history…or so they thought.
In January 2018, YouTuber Jake Paul shocked the world by making his professional boxing debut against Deji Olatunji. Having dominated social media with his brother Logan for the past 10 years, Jake’s larger-than-life persona eventually grew so big that it found its way into the boxing ring.
However, what was more surprising than Paul’s sudden change to boxing, was the fact that he was winning, and winning a lot.
In 2020, he beat former athlete Nate Robinson, in 2021 he beat mixed martial artist Ben Askren, and later in 2021 he beat former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.
Still, these guys were just chumps, athletes from different sports who never had a shot at competing at the highest level of boxing. Paul could never actually beat a real opponent right? WRONG.
In 2022 he beat Anderson Silva, in 2023 he beat Nate Diaz, and in then he beat his first professional boxing opponent Andre August.
While he was certainly not contending with the likes of Terrence Crawford or Bam Rodriguez, he was defeating good opponents and was beating them decisively with 7 KO’s, only losing one bout to Tommy Fury in 2023.
Paul’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the faces of boxing (even if it was influenced heavily by social media) prompted a challenge. A challenge from a man who had not boxed in over 20 years. A man who was so feared his opponents would bow out of the match before it even started in fear of being destroyed. Of course, I am talking about the baddest man to ever walk the face of the planet, Mike Tyson.
Tyson has long been hailed as one of the greatest and most universally beloved athletes in all of sports. With a record of 50-6 (with 44 KO’s), a menagerie of iconic victories and matches, and a penchant for bringing death and destruction upon his opponents, many boxers could only hope to go through life without being knocked out by Mike Tyson.
However, this time around is different. Instead of a 25-year-old pouncing Jaguar, Paul would be facing a near 60-year-old man with back problems and an unhealthy obsession with birds.
Despite the red flags, despite the many cautionary tales, and despite MANY MANY warnings from his doctor, Tyson decided to proceed with what some called “The Match Of The Century.”
Unfortunately, it did not take long for Tyson’s age to show as he had a kidney flare up in early 2024 postponing their July matchup. Nevertheless, this did not stop Tyson from making a full recovery and scheduling another match with Paul on November 15th, 2024.
A day before when the contestants were weighing in, Tyson slammed Paul for a snarky remark as both parties were forced to be separated from each other. After a boatload of taunts, chants, and social media posts, the Problem Child and the once great competitor met up in the ring with over 60 million people watching from around the nation.
However, despite the 60 million people watching, the match would prove to be nothing but a colossal disappointment.
While Paul was indeed the favorite, many people (especially those who witnessed Tyson fight in his prime) believed that Tyson would put up a full force fight in order to take Paul down. Undecidedly however, despite an electric first round, it seemed as if Tyson was shot just a few minutes into the conflict.
After a normal second round, Tyson was then obliterated in round 3 as Paul landed over ten punches on him. For the rest of the match, Tyson stayed on the defensive attacking rarely as Paul held back from putting his full weight into his punches. To the disappointment of millions of fans, the match proved to be a snoozefest as Paul won by technical decision after 8 two-minute rounds.
Despite their beef, Paul and Tyson then reconciled showing respect to and complimenting one another after the match was finished.
Considering the fact that most Americans stayed up till 1 AM to watch the fight, it is safe to say that Paul and Tyson were some of the only people happy after the match. In spite of the endless promotion, advertising, and publicity of the fight, the event proved to be what many fans should have seen well before the match: a cash grab.
As exciting of a concept as it was, this did not even come close to being a real fight. Neither boxer was there for the victory, only the check, and as Netflix cashed in the billions of dollars they made, the millions of fans who stayed up and watched left disappointed.
In the end, all it was was a simple publicity stunt funded by the avarice of the streaming platforms, boxers, and the entire boxing industry as a whole.
You want to see a real fight? Go watch the bout before between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. After eight grueling rounds of tearing each other apart jab by jab, hook by hook, and uppercut by uppercut, Taylor was declared the winner in an extremely controversial decision by the judges. Compared to the fight between Taylor and Serrano, Tyson vs. Paul looked like two fourth graders playing patty cake during recess.
Why? It’s simple, AGE. The human body can only take so much. Tyson may have been great once, but his ego is writing checks that his body can’t cash and it showed in his fight with Paul. Could he have landed a lucky punch? Sure. But Tyson vs. Paul will still forever go down as one of the many battles won by the undefeated champion: Father Time.