Jake Paul is fighting Mike Tyson. Why this is happening and what to expect

Mike Tyson returns to the ring. Yes, you heard right. Tyson will face Jake Paul in a boxing match on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul (9-1, 6 KOs) said recently that he wants to focus on fighting real boxers to eventually compete for a world title. Instead, he will face the long-retired Tyson (56-6, 44 KOs), a former heavyweight champion and one of the best in boxing history. His last competitive fight was almost 19 years ago, a TKO loss to Kevin McBride in June 2005. Tyson will be 58 years old when the fight takes place.

Tyson competed in an eight-round exhibition fight with Roy Jones Jr. in July 2020, and although the fight exceeded expectations, no one was asking for more. At the height of his career, Tyson was one of the most feared boxing fighters and earned the nickname “the baddest man on the planet.” He was the undisputed heavyweight champion and still remains the youngest fighter to win a heavyweight title in boxing history. After serving less than three years in prison for rape between 1992 and 1995, Tyson returned to the ring five months later and, after two victories, regained the WBC title by defeating Frank Bruno in 1996.

After beginning his boxing career against other YouTubers and former MMA fighters, Paul, 27, lost a split decision to Tommy Fury in February 2023. Last August, he faced another MMA fighter in Nate Diaz and said he was going to change direction in hopes of developing a real boxing career. Since then, he has scored first-round knockout victories over Andre August and Ryan Bourland, fighting at the 200-pound cruiserweight limit.

All of this leads us to ask just one question: why is this happening?

Mike Coppinger and Marc Raimondi share their thoughts.

Why is this fight taking place? Isn't Tyson almost 60 years old?

Tyson may be old for a boxer, but time hasn't eroded his star power at all. Even though Tyson's last professional fight took place in 2005, he remains one of the biggest names on the planet, and not just in sports.

There's also no doubt that Paul is one of the biggest stars on social media. Add them together and you have a massive event that is sure to garner global appeal, boxing purists be damned.

Netflix has over 260 million subscribers worldwide, and since it's not a PPV, there's a chance it could be the most-watched fight of this century. Seriously. Mayweather's fight with Manny Pacquiao in 2015 shattered the PPV record with 4.6 million buys.

The days of Muhammad Ali fighting on ABC in front of hundreds of millions of people are long gone. The Rumble in the Jungle was rumored to be the most watched fight in the world, but that was 1974. And even for Tyson, the most popular fighter in the world since Ali, all of his biggest fights were televised on PPV.

For the record, Tyson still looks the part, even at his advanced age. He's in great shape and still looks fierce in the pads. Whether he can beat Paul, who is a much better boxer than people give him credit for, is another story. — Copper

Will it be a real sanctioned boxing match or an exhibition?

When Tyson faced Jones Jr., in November 2020, it was an exhibition where it was clear that the two all-time greats weren't throwing punches with bad intentions. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as the promotion doesn't try to fool fans into thinking it's a real fight.

It is unclear whether this will be a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR)-sanctioned boxing match or an exhibition, but Tyson will be 58 years old on fight night. And if Tyson-Jones ushered in one thing, it's a pattern of events like this where he is totally ambiguous in the preparation between exhibition and sanctioned fight.

In some cases, the exhibition turned into a fight where each person tried to hurt the other. Just look at Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield in September 2021, an exhibition where Belfort knocked out the legend in the first round.

Then there was the Logan Paul-Floyd Mayweather exhibition in the summer of 2021, where it was painfully obvious that neither man was throwing punches with the intent of inflicting damage. After all, Paul and Mayweather were 35 pounds apart. It was anything but a real boxing match.

And when Tyson Fury fought Francis Ngannou in October, it was considered an exhibition for weeks, but turned out to be a very real fight that counted on both fighters' records.

With Tyson's age, it would be surprising if this isn't another exhibition in the vein of Jake's older brother vs. Mayweather. Just a fun event with two big names where they rock out in the ring. But everything remains to be seen. — Copper

Should this fight even happen?

Everyone involved will surely make a lot of money and there is no doubt that this will be one of the most watched boxing matches of all time. But no one really wants to see Mike Tyson, almost 60 years old, get beaten up by Jake Paul. It just wouldn't be a good idea for anyone, including Paul and Netflix. Some will surely believe that Tyson is going to attack the youngest child on YouTube. But Paul is big, strong, athletic and thirty years younger than Tyson. He will have the advantage on all physical levels.

Both are consenting adults and if they want to fight and TDLR approves Tyson with a clean bill of health, then no one can really stand in their way. These are the kind of glasses we wear in combat sports these days and this one is the most polarizing yet. The best-case scenario is that the fight is classified as an exhibition and the two have a friendly but physical sparring match, much like Tyson vs. Jones Jr. As Coppinger noted, these two weren't going at each other with bad intentions in November. 2020, but the crowd still went home satisfied with the event. Frankly, it's all about entertainment anyway, not a real sporting competition. And it doesn't matter if we take it literally. – Raimondi

Paul said he was focused on fighting “real boxers” to become world champion. What happened?

After Paul's only professional defeat, a split decision loss to Tommy Fury last year, he turned his attention to his bread and butter: MMA opponents. Paul beat Nate Diaz in August and later announced he would begin developing his skills the old-fashioned way with fights against “real boxers.”

These “real boxers” were undoubtedly well below the level of Paul's MMA foes like Diaz, Ben Askren and especially Anderson Silva, but Jake's crossover events were losing steam. And it made sense from a narrative perspective. Take out a few part-time boxers with accumulated records – the same way star fighters like Canelo Alvarez and Gervonta Davis did on the way up – with an eye on title contention.

Paul scored a first-round knockout of journeyman August in December and followed that up with a first-round TKO of another such opponent in Bourland on Saturday. But these fights don't seem to get much attention.

So Paul probably erred on the side of caution by returning to what he does best: performing in a circus fight against another big name. Whether Paul will ever return to his stated goal of becoming cruiserweight champion remains to be seen. But this lucrative event with Tyson is unlikely to change that trajectory. This will only boost Paul's profile, and again, this should be an exhibition where Paul loses no boxing credibility.

What does this mean for Paul's future prospects?

It will remain a big box office attraction for anyone who pitches a big enough name. In 2020, after Paul knocked out Nate Robinson, he said his dream fight was with UFC star Conor McGregor. At the time it seemed absolutely ridiculous that this could happen. Less than four years later, it's a real possibility. McGregor has two fights left on his UFC contract. He wrote on Instagram earlier this week that he wanted to fight twice this year, once in June and again in September. This would potentially make him a free agent before the end of 2024.

Paul fighting Tyson doesn't necessarily stop him from continuing to fight keepers with an eye toward title contention one day. But it's also clear that if those big-money events arise, he won't turn them down to steadily continue on the championship path against unknowns. For all the criticism this fight with Tyson will rightly garner, it is quite remarkable what Paul and Most Valuable Promotions have done in a very short period of time, putting together major boxing events and building his roster. Paul made combat sports work for him, rather than the other way around. – Raimondi

How does Netflix fit into all of this?

Most of this story is not Paul or Tyson. This is because Netflix broadcasts this fight live internationally without an additional paywall. Paul vs. Tyson will be the third sporting event organized and broadcast by Netflix. There's surely more to come, and not just with Netflix's big rights deal with WWE for the Raw TV show in the United States and the wrestling promotion's full slate of offerings available on the entertainment giant. streaming worldwide.

Paul vs. Tyson at AT&T Stadium is a full-throated Netflix message that affects not only sports, but combat sports in particular. This could be a very good thing for boxing, with Showtime and HBO getting out of the game in recent years after decades of market leadership. Perhaps Netflix could even be a player for the UFC, once its rights deal with ESPN is complete. – Raimondi