Note to Netflix – Mike Tyson is a convicted sex offender

Opinion

Assistant sports editor

On behalf of women everywhere, but especially in the US – don’t watch Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul

14 November 2024 at 18.01(Updated 15 November 2024 at 15.15)

Who would we rather have in the White House – a woman or a man who has been accused at least 26 times of sexual misconduct? Never mind, we know the answer to that one. But here’s another question: If you’re going to call yourself “the baddest man on the planet,” is there room for the mask to slip any further?

Welcome to the latest installment of the ear-swallowing, tiger-owned entertainment machine. Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul, boxing legacy vs YouTube banter, nostalgia vs nausea.

You can feel unmoved by the performance, determined as a sports competition or fascinated by the circus. The morbid fascination of a 58-year-old tumbling through the ropes to meet a professional loudmouth half his age, just another sign of the times in an age of profound stupidity, is undeniable.

Apart from a few dissenting voices, it is impossible to conclude that anyone really concerns the past of Tyson, a former world champion with an upbringing more difficult than most people’s imaginations, whose transgressions have only led to intrigue in the man and the myth.

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That doesn’t change the fact that in 1992 he was found guilty of rape and two counts of deviant sexual behavior following allegations made by Desiree Washington, who was 18 years old at the time. Tyson denied the allegations but was jailed for six years, of which he served three. Under federal law, he is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

None of this was a footnote to his career, but occurred smack in the middle of it; after becoming a world champion at age 20, he was released from prison at age 28 and went on to wrestle another 16 professional bouts. As legal, financial and personal problems began to set in, a series of recent exhibition bouts have followed. To fight Paul, live on Netflix, he will receive more than £15m.

Millions will watch. Most of them will not have read the section in the 1989 biography, Fire and fearwritten by his former friend Jose Torres, in which Tyson reportedly recounted “the best punch I ever threw in my entire life”. Spoiler alert: according to the book, it was against his then-wife, Robin Givens, who he reportedly said “flew backwards and hit every wall in the apartment.” Tyson later insisted that there were “inaccuracies” in the book.

But with the wallet at stake and the large number of eyeballs glued, why the collective shrug? Maybe because this is a fight for people more interested in buying crypto than boxing. A more conciliatory view is that it’s something we — “we” in the broadest possible sense, the sports world, Netflix, all of us — might have once cared less about.

Go back to the US election – it’s not not to know what he has done. Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of Donald Trump, was right: “Flood the zone with shit.” More and more information, more scandal, more madness, more and more and more and you can see how quickly the lines blur. Bomb them enough, let them doom scroll – they will lose the ability to be shocked.

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Despite the label, Tyson is not actually the baddest man on the planet after all. There are worse people; his fans find him jovial and eccentric. Most conveniently of all, there is no takedown here, no saint to disgrace. He has spent his media outings in the run-up to the Paul fight repeating the line that he is “not pretty”.

Those aren’t even the only things wrong with a fight Eddie Hearn has called “very sad”. Also potentially dangerous, the first date has been pushed back due to Tyson’s health. Oddly enough, it will overshadow a true era-definer in Katie Taylor’s rematch with Amanda Serrano, who is on the undercard.

Apart from everything else, it beats everything but the basic myth of boxing. That this is a sport that lifts the vulnerable out of poverty and despair. The salvation that the ring once promised Iron Mike has not materialized.

Then to Arlington, Texas, where 6.3 million people just voted to limit women’s liberties, and where two different realities will unfold on Saturday. Away from the bright lights of AT&T Stadium, women across the US are deleting period tracking apps that may contain data that suggests pregnancy. Others encourage each other to stock up on the morning-after pill before January’s transition of power. Choosing to ignore this struggle is not about canceling culture, but what kind of message is being sent by those who indulge in it?