On Nov. 15, Mike Tyson fought in the long awaited boxing match against Jake Paul, with Paul defeating Tyson.
The match was live streamed on Netflix, and the publicity around this fight between the two had been wide-spread for months; though the fight itself failed to meet the expectations fans had, and was unfair for boxer Tyson.
Tyson and his reign of terror is no joke, having won almost every match he’s competed in since 1985 with the exception of a few, before retiring.
The issue with this match arises when you start to compare the opponents, on one hand you have a 27-year-old at his peak physical performance, and on the other, you have a retired 58-year-old boxer who hasn’t competed in a fight since 2005.
“A thirty year age difference is a big difference,” sophomore Parker Black said, sharing this perspective with other viewers and Tyson supporters.
But the clear disadvantages between Tyson and Paul were not the only annoyances, issues, and frustrations people have with this match, the fight was also just plain boring.
“I would have honestly rather have seen Mike Tyson get knocked out than have them just dance around each other the whole time,” junior Lucas Carr said.
The last blow to the brain for this match is because of Paul himself. Paul has an unbelievable amount of controversies surrounding him, making Tyson seem like an absolute doll in comparison.
Starting off as a humble Disney channel star, he was fired due to his Youtube channel where he would perform weird stunts and unfunny pranks that would only serve to annoy the public. The aura surrounding Paul consists of horrible racial slurs, taking advantage of his young fans’ money, a weird relationship with women; as well as criminal trespassing, unlawful assembly, and an FBI raid on his house in 2020.
“I think his whole YouTube career is really just leeching off of kids using their parents credit card,” Carr said.
Paul only started boxing in 2018, way after he rose to public attention. Paul’s character is clear, and it’s not far-fetched at all to say that once he started losing attention around 2020, he began concocting a way to have as much attention on him as possible.
“It’s really clear to me that he’s not boxing because he enjoys boxing, he’s boxing because he ran out of publicity and needs the money,” Carr said.
The fact that Paul won the match was in bad taste and disrespectful to Tyson and his decision to retire. As a result of this match, the hatred for Paul has, deservingly, risen among students.
“It was kind of stupid, he’s fighting an old man, and he [Paul] has a bigger advantage, he’s not still in his prime,” sophomore Anthony Sheffey said.
