Mike Tyson comeback fight with Jake Paul exposed after 58-year-old’s sad performance

Didn’t you enjoy yourself?

It seems the resounding answer from millions of viewers was no.

But of course the better question is: what exactly did you expect?

For those of us old enough to remember his best years, Mike Tyson was the scariest boxer who ever lived.

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Although Muhammad Ali is widely regarded as the greatest and the fighting game is littered with a host of sensational, often charismatic champions, none inspired fear quite like ‘Iron’ Mike.

At just 178cm tall, Tyson was unusually short for a heavyweight boxer and reduced opponents who towered over him to putty.

As he began to establish his legacy, the narrative quickly shifted from whether Tyson would win to exactly how long it would take.

Tyson started his career a few months before his 19th birthday and won three of his first four fights in the first round.

After a pair of second and third round victories, he began a dizzying ten-fight winning streak, needing only one second-round exit, a win over Conroy Nelson 30 seconds into the second round.

Tyson destroyed his opponents, fighting with rage and extraordinary strength, leaving commentators wondering if he would ever be defeated.

He became the biggest name in the sport and one of the most recognizable faces in the world, with his black trunks, cropped haircut and chipped tooth smile suddenly everywhere.

But just as quickly as Tyson rose to fame, his descent was just as rapid.

It started in 1992 when he served three years in prison for the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington in Indianapolis.

Although he regained a heavyweight title, he lost it to Evander Holyfield in 1996 in his second career defeat, before making his infamous “Bite Fight” in the rematch the following year.

Still just 30 years old, the spark had gone and he lost three of his last four fights – horribly outclassed by Lennox Lewis in Tyson’s last title fight in 2002, before retiring in 2005 against Kevin McBride.

He had lost his speed, his power and his intimidation long before that, and that was the end of a legendary, hugely controversial career.

Or so we thought.

There was a stunned reaction when it was announced that Tyson would be fighting Jake Paul in a legitimate, sanctioned fight at the age of 58.

Paul is only 27 years old and was not born when Tyson first fought Holyfield.

It was a joke, a sham, it wouldn’t really happen, would it?

Not only did it continue, it had an audience of tens of millions.

Even though this writer thought it was all a circus, there was absolutely nothing else I could do this Saturday in November.

Why? Well, lots of good marketing, with the two fighters bringing out the usual animosity and quotable moments, along with those very brief clips of Tyson throwing punches.

But the real reason was the nagging thought: He couldn’t do it… right?

We didn’t take a poll, but we can bet that the reason the vast majority of people tuned in was to see if Tyson could somehow recapture even a little of that old magic and Paul back to YouTube.

But it would never happen.

Tyson lost his skills and mobility in his mid-30s, when the burden of thousands of hours in the ring, plus his incarceration, reduced him to something almost a mere mortal.

Not someone a true mortal would ever want to challenge, but also someone who had nothing to do with professional combat.

I spent more time today hoping Tyson wouldn’t blow out a knee or hurt his back like I did hoping he could land that one punch.

‘Mike doesn’t look well at all. His age is showing,” Roy Jones Jr. said. in a comment.

‘He’s in big trouble. Not good at all. He doesn’t have it anymore. Legs are gone.”

That’s right Roy, but that didn’t happen today, those legs were gone long before the advent of the iPhone.

Afterwards, countless viewers took to social media to label the fight a charade, but that’s all it ever was.

“I’m more relieved than anything,” Hall of Fame boxer Andre Ward said on Netflix afterwards.

“I didn’t want him to have a bad fall, get hit by a gunshot and have something bad happen.

“It’s an event, it’s a 58-year-old legend saying, ‘I’m going to test this YouTuber and see what I have.’

“Hopefully people aren’t too disappointed, but come on, he’s 58 years old, what did you expect?”

The sport of boxing itself is a shadow of its former self.

For more than a century, prize fighters were some of the biggest figures in the world, let alone sports.

Muhammad Ali, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, “Marvellous” Marvin Hagler, they were all as big as any star from any other sport during their prime.

Unfortunately, YouTube stars, UFC fighters trying their hand at boxing and even NRL players in Australia are attracting as much attention as the sport’s best pure fighters these days.

It has become a social media game.

Before the fight, Shaquille O’Neal and Rob Gronkowski discussed a fighting event of NBA players versus NFL players.

It sounds ridiculous, but it could very well continue and it will undoubtedly make a fortune and that’s why these things keep happening.

Many have turned away from boxing due to the brutality of the sport in this age of CTE and science.

But it also doesn’t have the characters from the past to fuel that passion.

Tyson may be the last of a dying breed and while he isn’t ruling it out, the last thing he needs to do is, please, get back in the ring.

Actor Rosie Perez, a huge boxing fan who was part of the Netflix commentary team and offered some solid insights, said this toward the end of Saturday’s show.

“It’s incredible to see how stunned the crowd is,” said Rosie Perez.

Precisely.

Originally published as The fight circus between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul is finally coming to an end