On July 20th, 57 year old Mike Tyson, the former heavy weight champion of the world, is going to face off against 27 year old internet mogul and more recently accomplished fighter Jake Paul. The event will be at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and is an officially sanctioned fight. The fight will be carried exclusively on Netflix. And I am now officially worried about the champ.
Mike Tyson Heavyweight Champion
Look, when I was 10 years old, (which is when the picture above occurred) Mike Tyson was just the biggest athlete, star, figure, celebrity in the goddamn world! And I grew up in a town with Walter Payton and Michael Jordan. Didn’t matter, Tyson fights were everything and you showed up to see if he could knock a mutherfuckin’ Michael Spinks out in 90 seconds. He was THE CHAMP!! And for my money the last time that a heavyweight champ was really compelling (before they became gigantic jab throwing borefests).
Fast forward 35 years and Mike has lived 14 different lives since he was the champ. As bad as it was Buster Douglas knocking him out in Tokyo, it unlocked a million, billion different iterations of the fighter from Catskill, NY. Not all of them good, but many of them transforming him into the character that he is today.
NO! I’m actually worried!
I’m not worried about reputation or what this does to boxing or that that smug asshole Jake Paul will get another one over. No fuck all that. Tyson will always be larger than life to me and someone who I can’t keep my eyes off of. No, I’m worried about a 57 year old man, even one who was greatly skilled as a younger man, getting himself into a situation where he can get seriously injured. I don’t want the champ to be fucked up beyond repair from this shit. I don’t want him to not make it out of the ring on that Saturday night. Like legit worried. Mike, I’ll be watching, but be careful, make it out. I want to hear old man Mike talking boxing history on some podcast in 10 years and I want you to be sharp as a tac.
Sincerely, 10 year old BeefLoaf
-BeefLoaf