WASHINGTON – Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson’s July 20 fight against YouTube sensation Jake Paul in Dallas will be a sanctioned heavyweight professional bout, fighters and promoters announced on April 29.
The fight will be over eight two-minute rounds, with the result to count on the record of Paul and Tyson, who lost his last official bout in 2005.
Tyson, 50-6 with 44 knockouts, has not won a fight since beating Clifford Etienne in 2003.
There were concerns over sanctioning anything more than an exhibition due to the age difference of the fighters. Paul is 27. Tyson turns 58 on June 30. The 31-year age gap between the two is the biggest in the history of professional boxing, according to ESPN.
An exhibition typically has no judges and can be won only by knockout, meaning there is a higher possibility of a draw.
“Mike Tyson wanted it to be a pro fight. Netflix wanted it to be a pro fight. So I agreed to make it a pro fight. Winner takes all,” Paul posted on X.
The bout will be at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys.
“Mike Tyson and Jake Paul signed on to fight each other with the desire to do so in a sanctioned professional fight that would have a definitive outcome,” Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian said in an X post.
“Over the past six weeks, we have worked with our partners to satisfy the requirements of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to sanction Paul v Tyson.”
Tyson won his first heavyweight world title in 1986 and became undisputed champion in 1987, nearly 10 years before Paul was born.
After a stunning upset loss to Buster Douglas in Tokyo in 1990, Tyson made a comeback to win a world crown in 1996 before losing the title to Evander Holyfield.
Tyson lost to Britain’s Lennox Lewis by eighth-round knockout in Memphis in 2002 in his last world title bout. He beat Etienne in 2003 but lost in comeback bids to Danny Williams in 2004 and Kevin McBride in 2005 at Washington, where he announced his retirement after the fight.
Paul is 9-1 with six wins by knockout. His most recent victory came in March in Puerto Rico where he stopped Ryan Bourland after two minutes and 37 seconds of the first round.
The American’s only loss was to Britain’s Tommy Fury in a split decision after eight rounds in February 2023 in Saudi Arabia.
The undercard will see lightweight champion Katie Taylor (23-1, 6 KOs) battle seven-division champion Amanda Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KOs) in a rematch of their April 2022 fight, when Ireland’s Taylor beat the Puerto Rican on a split decision. AFP, REUTERS
