Mike Tyson, 58, will return to the ring on Friday for a fight supported by Netflix that has received harsh criticism from the boxing community, over 40 years after he made his professional debut and 19 years after he was forced into retirement. Tyson is putting on his gloves again for an officially sanctioned bout against YouTuber Jake Paul, 27, at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas. Tyson terrorized the heavyweight class during an imperious reign in the late 1980s.
The going, which will take place in eight two-minute rounds, was initially set for July but was put back in May shortly after Tyson had to get examined after vomiting blood while flying from Miami to Los Angeles.
The graphic mid-air incident has given many critics who have denounced Friday’s fight as a gruesome circus act that puts Tyson at intolerable risk. Tyson last appeared in a professional ring in 2005, when he lost to Irish journeyman Kevin McBride via technical knockout after quitting on his stool.
“That shouldn’t be taking place.”
“Mike Tyson resigned from boxing twenty years ago and was shot to pieces, correct? “I mean, completely shot,” Eddie Hearn, a well-known British boxing promoter, stated last week. Anyone who believes that Mike Tyson should be fighting at this age is either a complete moron or has no affection for the man. It shouldn’t be taking place. Frank Warren, Hearn’s rival promoter, shared those opinions.
Warren stated, “Mike Tyson is 58 years of age and he shouldn’t be fighting,” following the announcement of the fight. That’s all there is to it. When you reach the end of a freeway traffic bottleneck, all you see are people who have stopped to watch a crash, which is exactly what this is.”