Boxing enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the highly publicised matchup between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, set to take place on Friday night at AT&T Stadium. It’s time to stop dismissing Jake Paul as a YouTuber, an impresario of mere stunts, or even a former Disney star who’s fashioned himself into a passable professional fighter. He’s a better promoter than many of the “purists” who’ve shepherded boxing to its current state. His involvement in boxing began long before most people know, as far back as 2016, the fighter Ryan Garcia once told me. And while Paul remains a skilled provocateur — or perhaps, because of it — he understands how to work the media better than anyone I’ve ever seen, at least anyone not named Al Sharpton or Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, the scale of the financial rewards in this case, combined with the unconventional nature of the matchup, added fuel to the suspicions of those who questioned the fight’s authenticity. The intersection of social media influence, streaming platform economics, and traditional boxing promotion created a unique financial ecosystem around this event, one that some viewed as ripe for manipulation. As boxing’s popularity grew in the mid-20th century, exhibition fights took on a new dimension.

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• In his heyday, Tyson was renowned for his killer instinct, ruthlessly finishing opponents when they showed any sign of weakness.

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• Mike Tyson’s boxing return is just about here and this is how to watch and stream his heavyweight fight with Jake Paul live.

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• Meanwhile, Joe Hand Promotions brought the chaos to over 6,000 bars and restaurants across the US, setting a new record for commercial distribution of a combat sports event.

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• “If you were to create the ultimate wrestling character, it would be based on Mike Tyson’s persona at the time,” he told me. “I mean, that’s the world’s perfect badass right there.”

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• That the fight will be streamed live on Netflix has only added fuel to his fire.
• Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of boxing fans who are excited to see this unleashed in Paul’s direction.

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In two months, Tyson’s persona legitimized two others, that of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the evil “Mr. McMahon,” while changing the history of sports entertainment. I’d venture an educated guess that, across the years, I’ve written more nasty stuff about Tyson than, well, anyone — much of it justified, some of it not, some of it shameful. But those same years also taught me that it’s better to judge fighters, not by their records, but by what they’ve survived. The event, headlined by Jake “El Gallo” Paul and Mike Tyson, a.k.a.”Baddest Man on the Planet,” is scheduled for live streaming exclusively on Netflix.

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You can also follow all the action on the ABC Sport live blog from 12pm AEDT on Saturday. If you are Tyson believer, your best bookmakers are either Picklebet or Dabble, with both bookies offering $2.75 for Tyson to defy the 31-year age gap. Despite the slap, Paul dismissed the incident, taunting that Tyson’s punch “lacked power,” adding a personal edge to the encounter. Promoter Lou DiBella, however, noted that heavier gloves may not significantly lower the risk of head trauma. It’s whether Mike Tyson, Good Guy-Babyface-Hero, can generate the same heat he did as a villain.

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The Unlikely Match-Up: First-timer Jake Paul vs. Legendary Retired Mike Tyson

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Frankly, Serrano and Taylor deserve more credit—if only Netflix wasn’t too busy figuring out how to keep its platform from buffering during historic moments. Netflix’s role in promoting this fight highlights jake paul vs chavez the evolving nature of sports entertainment in the digital age. It raises important questions about the balance between spectacle and sport, and the responsibilities of platforms in maintaining the integrity of the events they broadcast.

The hashtag #PaulTysonRigged trended on X, with users sharing clips of suspicious moments from the fight. Users compared Tyson’s movement in the bout to his training videos, highlighting the stark contrast and fueling debates about the authenticity of the boxing fight. “How does a fighter go from this to this in a matter of weeks? #PaulTysonRigged”, one tweet read, garnering hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets. Boxing historian and analyst Steve Bunce pointed out historical inconsistencies. Paul’s connect rate in this fight exceeded 40%, an anomaly that some experts attributed to Tyson’s reduced head movement and defensive approach. On the other hand, Mike Tyson, at 58 years old, is a boxing icon whose name is synonymous with power and ferocity in the ring.