Mike Tyson Opens Up On Why He Must Fight Jake Paul

Mike Tyson is the perfect Gen Z boxing hero, the ideal sports icon for this generation of focus-deprived , jump-skipping fandom– except he’s more than 35 years removed from being an actual elite-level athlete.

Nonetheless, ready or not, Tyson has a fight coming up in November– a real, sanctioned bout against the 27-year-old YouTuber/Infleuncer/Novice professional boxer Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, set to be broadcast live worldwide by Netflix.

Critics have blasted the idea of the 58-year making a return to the ring more than 19 years after having retired and, arguably, 24-25 years past what could even be considered his post-prime from. An ulcer flare-up already forced Tyson to postpone from the original July 20 date to November 15. There’s reason to believe that the wear and tear of training, even at a reduced “getting ready for Jake Paul” rate, could result in another injury or two before fight week.

So, there’s legitimate concern that Netflix’s play to get into the live sports business with a bang may disintegrate before any punches are even thrown. It’s a gamble worth taking, though, since insiders feel that Tyson-Paul just may become the most watched combat sports event of all time.

The reality is that Tyson’s name still resonates. For many– maybe most– mainstream fans, his name is what comes to mind when they think of what boxing ideally should be.

Highlight videos of his exploits– bone-shattering one-punch knockouts, angry-defiant post-fight interviews, out-of-ring skirmishes, the street-tough bluster– are remarkably contemporary and still get more views than the work of most high-end, elite-level active boxers. Prime Tyson was a man made for the TikTok generation, before there was a TikTok, or even an internet.

Since the “best” of Tyson, however, there’s been a lot of “worst.”

Not too long ago, he was in deep financial distress, dealing with addiction and the grief of losing his four-year-old daughter. His comeback in recent years is of the new age storybook variety, motored by the lucrative ownership of one of the top cannabis brands and a successful video podcast where Tyson’s greatest passions– fight talk, smoking weed, and pouring over nostalgia– all merge. He’s also, admittedly, added a degree of maturity into his life, grounded through the support of his wife Lakiha and the love of his children, along with the aid of his beloved mood-stabilizing cannabis.

No longer hurting financially and no longer propelled through life by anger, some may wonder why he’s even bothering with this Jake Paul fight.

New date for Jake’s wake.#PaulTyson pic.twitter.com/Q9YLCP7Q6g

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) June 7, 2024

In a recent piece for Esquire, writer Timothy Bella visited the former heavyweight champ as he picked up training for the Jake Paul bout. The once-upon-a-time “Baddest Man on the Planet” opened up about why he’s getting back in the ring and what all this means to him as a “new” Mike Tyson.

“My wife keeps saying, ‘You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to do this.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I do have to do this,’ ” Tyson told Bella, making it known that the millions earned from the Paul fight “will not change my life financially in any way.”

So, if it’s not really about the money, then why do this? Why risk embarrassment at the hands of someone who, in the same Esquire article, he referred to as just “a YouTuber” and dismissed with a, “It doesn’t matter how seriously he’s taking it. He is who he is?”

“I’m a glory junkie. I love people thinking about me all day,” he said. “I’d rather live a short life of glory than a long life of obscurity. It’s just who I am.

“This is all I started fighting for—to get all this f**king status. I’m going to be chasing it for the rest of my life. I know that. I’m never going to get what I want, because I’m one of those gluttons for pain. I can never get enough.”

Although obviously not as all-dominating and destructive as before, this drive to “be” someone, to prove his worth through conquest, is still there. And the more he dips his toes into boxing waters again, the fiercer that drive gets.

But Tyson appears to have come to terms with who he is now.

“He’s never going to leave me,” he says of his younger, angrier, more self-destructive self. “But you have to realize I’m not that person anymore. That’s just the reality. I’m not that person. I will never be that person again. I don’t like that person.”

Tyson hopes to bring a bit of that old self into the ring against Jake Paul on November 15, though. If he can’t, it might make for a sad, embarrassing definitive ending to a Hall of Fame career.