Realism has never been a big part of Mike Tyson’s life.
He was world heavyweight champion before the age of 21. He went on to earn hundreds of millions of dollars and blew the lot. He spent time in prison for rape, chewed part of an opponent’s ear off and squandered years high on alcohol and drugs.
Few things about Tyson’s time on this planet have been normal. But reality smacked him straight in the face in Dallas. And the most damaging punch of all didn’t come from internet sensation Jake Paul. It came from the opponent no one can ever beat. Father Time.
And what a sobering sight it was to witness someone who used to beat rivals before he’d even stepped in the ring, resemble a drunken bum prostituting himself for a few dollars more.
Baddest man on the planet? Saddest, more like.
In eight two-minute rounds, the man with lead in his legs and feathers for fists landed just 16 punches. He looked like what he is. A bloke close to being 60.
Paul bowed to Tyson before the final bell, which summed up what a complete farce the entire sh**show had been.
(Image: Getty Images)
If Paul wanted to show Tyson genuine respect, he wouldn’t have gotten into the ring in the first place. He would have put common sense before his bank balance. But cash is the only currency wannabe boxer Paul deals in. And nothing moves the dollar dial more than a freak show like this.
Yet shame on the estimated 65 million who paid to watch it, including the rich and famous at ringside who were not in the least bit embarrassed. Witnessing a has been aged 58 being clubbed round the head.
The most shame of all falls on those morons at the Texas Athletic Commission who sanctioned the fight in the first place. If Tyson goes on to become like Muhammad Ali in later life, then it will be on the them and the public in general.
Ali spent more than three decades battling Parkinson’s disease. When he died in 2016 aged 74, the greatest of them all was left in a world of his own, for all the wrong reasons. A dead man barely walking.
(Image: Getty Images)
And now we’ve had Tyson, one of sport’s genuine icon figures, labouring to land a blow on a rival who wasn’t even born when he conquered the world in 1986.
Call me old fashioned, but sport is about competition. This was a contest between someone in the prime of his life – and someone who appeared incapable of knocking the top off a rice pudding.
Some have claimed Paul is good for boxing. What utter tripe. He’s not. He’s good for racking up followers on social media and adding noughts to his personal fortune.
(Image: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
Standing in the ring afterwards, Tyson didn’t rule out another fight and offered on Paul’s brother. ‘I’d kill you’, came the response from Logan Paul. And this is the point. Maybe he would. Or at least hasten Tyson’s demise.
Tyson had taken to social media to post a video of himself arriving inside the AT&T Stadium ahead of the circus with the caption: ‘Ready for Jake’s wake’.
If cretins allow him to continue taking part in stupid stunts like this, it won’t be Paul’s wake people are going to.