Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul: What is behind the well-known boxing craze? | Boxing news

Mike Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion who recently recovered from a stomach ulcer, will face 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a boxing match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday. .

With an eye-popping $40 million in the fight’s “purse” and no title belts on the line, the bout, which has been sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, has drawn condemnation from the boxing community for being a product of celebrity culture, which some see as a devaluation of the art of this sport.

Friday’s fight marks the latest in a series of recent unorthodox bouts involving celebrities and ex-pros.

How did we get to the point where a former professional recovering from ill health wants to face a man 31 years his junior in a boxing ring – potentially attracting millions of viewers around the world?

When did the well-known boxing craze begin?

The concept of a celebrity boxing match has been around for decades, but until recently it had been limited to charity events and short-lived television series.

The quality and intensity of these fights ranged wildly from an unexpectedly heated matchup in 2002 between British comedians Ricky Gervais and Bob Mortimer to a tepid but symbolic matchup in 2015 between US Senator Mitt Romney and five-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.

In 2017, then-UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor broke with convention when he fought boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr in a crossover bout dubbed “The Money Fight.”

Mayweather was guaranteed $100 million and McGregor $30 million for the fight. Confidentiality meant the final payouts have not been made public, but reports from the fighter’s camps afterwards suggest the payouts were much higher than expected.

That same year, an amateur boxing event in London pitted YouTube influencers against each other with a headline fight between KSI – a 31-year-old British influencer and musician, and Joe Weller, 28, also a British influencer and musician.

It started a trend with Jake Paul making a name for himself by posting prank videos online of him facing KSI the following year and then facing Mayweather in an exhibition match in 2021.

Why do celebrities and ex-pros want to step into the ring?

Jake Paul has been clear about his priority – money.

“I’m here to make $40 million and knock out a legend,” he told a news conference in August.

Friday’s fight will be exclusively televised by streaming service Netflix, a move that has boosted payouts in the realm of professional boxing.

For example, undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk pocketed around $45 million from his last fight against British boxer Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia in May.

It will certainly mark a considerable increase over Paul’s last fight against British boxer Tommy Fury, where Paul reportedly took home approximately $3.2 million.

Duke McKenzie, a former British boxer who has won world titles in three weight classes, told Al Jazeera that unlike Paul, Tyson’s motivation is probably not just money.

“It’s his ego, nothing more, nothing less,” he said firmly.

Tyson could find many other ways to make money, including using his fame to endorse products, indicating the former boxer is driven by a desire to relive past glories, McKenzie said.

The fight was originally scheduled for July 20, but was pushed back after Tyson suffered a stomach ulcer.

That condition, combined with his age, makes McKenzie worried the former champion is putting his ego before his health, he said.

“What we are looking at is an old, shell-shocked warrior who unfortunately still wants to relive his past.

“I wish he could walk away from the sport with his head held high, but his ego won’t let him.”

What else fuels the celebrity boxing craze?

In 2023, the trend of celebrity fights reached new heights when Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla founder and owner of social media platform X, Elon Musk, appeared to agree to a “cage fight”.

Musk took to his own platform to announce that after talks with Italy’s prime minister and culture minister, “they have agreed on an epic location”, adding “everything in the camera image will be ancient Rome”.

Although the match never materialized, the episode showed how popular the concept had become.

“The process of becoming extremely wealthy is a fierce competition that triggers a kind of hyper-masculinity,” Caroline Knowles, a sociologist and global professor at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera.

She said that same drive — an intense will to succeed in the business world — lends itself to entering the same high-stakes, competitive world of martial arts.

In his book, Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London, Knowles studied the behavior of the super-rich in London.

She said that during her research, she found that activities most people would have considered hobbies would be taken much more seriously by those in the hyper-competitive world of multimillionaires and billionaires.

She recalled talking to Russian oligarchs who were interested in mountaineering, always “trying to push the limit” and competing to reach the world’s highest peaks.

Knowles added that the hubris of being in a wealthy elite can make someone believe they can do anything, including stepping into an octagon cage or fighting a former professional boxer.

What does this mean for boxing?

From a business perspective, McKenzie said, celebrity matchups bring both money and interest to boxing, but this has “devalued” the sport because the standards of the fighters do not “represent true boxing”.

It’s an opinion echoed by many in the boxing world.

“If I was Jake Paul I’d just feel a little bit embarrassed to be honest with you,” Eddie Hearn, one of the sport’s best-known promoters, told BBC Sport in October.

“This is dangerous, irresponsible and, in my opinion, disrespectful to the sport of boxing,” Hearn added.

McKenzie runs his own boxing gym and estimates that 80 percent of the men who sign up “would love to be Jake Paul”.

“Everybody that comes through my door thinks they can be a champion after three or four fights,” he said.

He added that Paul’s quick, “big money” route to fighting belies the hard work and real mental and physical struggle that boxers have to put into their craft.

“The reality is being a boxer requires a certain kind of mentality. I remember getting up at five in the morning, running 16 kilometers (10 miles) on an empty stomach and then being in the gym at two,” he said.

Why have famous boxing matches been approved?

There are several international sanctioning bodies in boxing, resulting in more than 100 titles being up for grabs and producing an intricate array of numerous world champions in various weight categories.

There are four major organizations that sanction boxing matches: the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

But for those with a passing interest in the sport, the system can seem confusing, and the importance of a single belt can be diluted with so many in the mix.

That confusion has heightened the appeal for some of a blockbuster, winner-takes-all matchup between two big names, experts said.

Celebrity boxing matches, which are not about placings or titles, must be sanctioned only by the boxing commission of the governing body where the event is held – in the case of Tyson vs Paul, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Although McKenzie said he sees the sheer number of titles up for grabs as a problem in boxing, he still sees social media as the ultimate driver of this latest craze.

He doubts the fight would ever have been sanctioned before the age of social media – but now the glamor and money it can bring to the sport has changed the landscape irreparably.

He fears it will take someone like an aging Tyson or an inexperienced Paul to get seriously injured before the appeal of celebrity boxing fades.

The match will take place on Friday, November 15, with the event scheduled to begin at 19:00 local time (01:00 GMT on November 16).