Here’s a very 2024 sentence: Jake Paul, the controversial and popular YouTuber, is going to fight former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson on Netflix. The violent publicity stunt will take place in AT&T stadium — aka Jerry World, the home of the Dallas Cowboys — in Arlington, Texas on July 20.
The fight will certainly be a huge spectacle. Paul is wildly popular, especially with the younger generation. Tyson, despite being 57 years old, remains a household name and, during his prime decades ago, was the most electric and dominant fighter of a generation. Before “YouTuber” was a well-known profession, the site was littered with grainy compilation videos of his terrifying knockouts.
The announcement of the fight on Thursday quickly drew lots of attention. In fact, “he’s 57” started trending on X, with lots of folks pointing out that Tyson isn’t your typical 57-year-old.
Paul, 27, pivoted hard to boxing and, to his credit, has done a solid job becoming a fighter. As ESPN noted last week, Paul — who has a record of 9-1 — has even moved to fighting actual boxers with low name-recognition rather than celebrities. In other words, he really seems to be working toward becoming a better fighter.
“He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT,” Tyson said in a statement. “It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him off on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”
Paul was the undercard to a Tyson exhibition in 2020, during which the YouTuber knocked out former NBA player Nate Robinson. A few years later and he can credibly say he’s the most popular name in boxing, even if he isn’t a serious competitor for the real pros.
