By Geno McGahee
This Friday, it goes down. Jake “The Problem Child” Paul, 10-1, 7 KO’s, will be taking on the former Undisputed Heavyweight Champion, “Iron” Mike Tyson, 50-6, 44 KO’s, in an 8 round match that will count on their professional records. This marks the first professional fight for Tyson since his 2005 knockout defeat to Kevin McBride.
One of the first fights that I witnessed the talent of Tyson was his 1986 destruction of Marvis Frazier. He would go onto win and unify the heavyweight title, becoming the youngest fighter to ever hold heavyweight gold. He was a beast in the ring, terrifying the majority of his opposition before they even put on the gloves. Most people that grew up watching Tyson fight are still interested in him and Jake Paul knew this and saw the potential for a big payday and a potentially easy fight. The reward seems to outweigh the risk by a lot.
Jake Paul started his boxing career by taking on other influencers and quickly disposing of them. His boxing skills continued to improve and he began to pick up some quality victories with his best victory to date being over Anderson Silva, a combat sport veteran that held a victory over former champion, Julio Cesar Chavez, JR.
As Paul took on mostly former MMA guys in the boxing ring, he was getting a lot of negative feedback from the boxing fans. The complaint was that he was feasting on the MMA guys and wasn’t fighting “real boxers.” He would try to silence that by taking on Tommy Fury, a young and strong undefeated fighter and lost a close decision. He would return to the ring with four straight victories, including a decision win over Nate Diaz, two first round stoppages of actual boxers and a recent sixth round knockout of Mike Perry, the bare knuckled boxing champion and former MMA fighter.
Going into this fight, we are seeing Tyson hit the mitts and just saw some footage of him landing a left hook and dropping a sparring partner. He looks good, but we are only getting a small window into what he has left and where he currently is. His last time in the ring was four years ago when he took on Roy Jones, JR., in an exhibition, and he looked a little slow and clunky in that bout.
In my last take on this fight, before it was postponed, I felt strongly that Paul would win by knockout. It’s a young man’s game and Paul has been incredibly active and improves every time out. Paul has recently developed a right uppercut that has stopped two recent opponents. Considering it’s been about 20 years since Tyson got hit from an opponent looking to beat him, his ability to take the incoming from Paul could be more than he can handle. The first punch from Paul could be the last one. If that right uppercut lands on Mike, it could hurt him and stop him before he gets going.
For Tyson, the plan is simple and it’ll either be the key to victory or the path to a terrible defeat. He will storm Paul, trying to get him on the ropes and unloading. He doesn’t want Paul to dictate range. I expect Tyson to start pushing Paul back in the first round and Paul attempting to land that right uppercut. That uppercut is the key to this fight. If Paul finds a home for it, he will probably win by early knockout. If he doesn’t, he could get bullied by an aging champion that has kept his power.
Tyson’s best chance is to land as early as possible and hope for the best. Paul does keep his chin up and does get hit. Considering that he’s putting on about 30 pounds since his last fight, supposedly, he will be slower and that might give Mike some opportunities. If Tyson can find just a smidge of what he once was, it should be enough to win, but at 58, it’s unlikely.
To come up with my final prediction on this fight, I looked at everything I could and it’s very easy to lean one way or the other. Part of my thought is that I may be overrating Jake Paul as a fighter. He has beaten two non-fighters, six former MMA guys and two less than fantastic pugilists. His sole defeat was to Fury, another boxer with questionable stats. If Paul’s record and highlight reel knockouts are an illusion created through matchmaking and marketing, he could be biting off more than he could chew with Tyson.
If I’m possible overrating Paul, I might be underrating Tyson coming into this fight. Tyson looks impressive on the mitts and in the sparring that I’ve seen. Paul was pushed around the ring by smaller guys like Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz at times. Tyson has mentioned Diaz at the press conference, noting that he could not stop somebody so much smaller. Tyson has talked about levels to the game. He’s saying all the right things going into this and he almost has me changing my initial opinion… almost.
I’m with the vast majority that want to see Tyson win. This is the ending to a long journey for people my age that grew up watching him fight. He brought an energy and was easily one of the best heavyweights ever to lace up the gloves, but he’s 58. He’s going to be slow and easier to hit. Paul took on Andre August, a heavyweight that fought low like Tyson and tried to press, and he was met with a right uppercut and a first round knockout.
Jake Paul will knockout Mike Tyson within 2 rounds. He has to do it early because he cannot let Tyson linger around and risk getting hit with a punch from him. If Tyson hangs around, a slower and more exhausted Paul will be an easier target. I just don’t think that Tyson will be able to walk through the right uppercut and overhand rights coming his way. It’s been too many years. It’s been too long since a fighter tried to knock his head off.
Despite my prediction of Paul KO-2 Tyson, I’m hoping that I’m wrong and that Iron Mike can absorb the uppercut and get his punches off and gets a knockout victory to end his pro career on. I’m actually betting on Tyson to win, going with my heart instead of my head and hoping that he can find some of that old magic.
