UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture argues that Jake Paul could be in for a long night as Mike Tyson isn’t just fighting for money, but the entire sport of boxing.
Randy Couture certainly knows his stuff when it comes to crossover combat sports, having fought (and defeated) boxing champion James Toney back in 2010; yet the UFC legend has now offered a fascinating insight into what motivations could be behind Mike Tyson’s controversial next bout.
Mike Tyson faces Jake Paul in the boxing ring on Netflix this summer
Boxing superstar Mike Tyson returns to the ring on Saturday, July 20 to face social media star Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas – the event is to be streamed worldwide exclusively on Netflix.
Despite being supported by an outstanding rematch between two of the biggest role models in the sport to date, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, boxing purists have condemned the event as a farce; given that Paul is almost three decades younger than Tyson.
Now, former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture has offered his insight into what would motivate such a combat sports veteran like Mike Tyson, to accept such a controversial opponent.
UFC legend Randy Couture explains motivations behind Tyson facing Paul
Speaking to Jordan Ellis via the TalkSportMMA YouTube channel, UFC legend Randy Couture admitted that “Jake Paul’s certainly got his hands full with Mike Tyson,” ahead of their clash on July 20.
“Even at 58 [Tyson is currently 57, and will be 58 by fight night], Mike is as explosive as he ever was and Mike’s firing on all cylinders now – I think he’s going to be very tough to deal with for Jake, but it’s going to be interesting.”
The former UFC king noted that “a lot of people are going to tune in to see” how well Tyson performs at 58 years old against Paul, who is almost 30 years his junior.
Couture then argued that the former undisputed boxing champion is fighting for more than just a paycheck or for his own legacy, but the very sanctity of boxing itself:
“I think there’s a little more at stake here for Mike, I think Mike sees some of these crossover fights and what’s going on, and how that’s affecting boxing and people’s perception of boxing. If you take him at his word, he wants to kind of straighten some of that rhetoric out.”
“He’s saying ‘Hey this isn’t as easy as Jake Paul is making it look’ – he’s fighting for boxing in many ways, against a YouTuber and social media guy who has made his way up.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that fight unfolds,” said Couture, before noting that even for someone who had 30 professional MMA fights, seeing Tyson back in training camp is as intimidating as it gets:
“Watching the training footage of Mike Tyson, you have flashbacks to him in his prime and that’s pretty scary, pretty remarkable.”
Fans unclear whether Tyson vs Paul will be licensed, or remain an exhibition
Despite the event being only a few months away from landing on our streaming services, fans are still unclear whether or not Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul will be a professional, or exhibition boxing bout.
This week, a representative for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation told World Boxing News that even now, they had still not received any information from the promotional team about the issue:
“We still have not received a card from the promoter for that particular fight, so no decisions have been made yet about whether the Tyson vs Paul event will be an exhibition or professional contest.”
Tyson himself told Fox News a few weeks ago “This is called an exhibition, but if you look up exhibition, you won’t see any of the laws we’re fighting under.”
“This is a fight. I don’t think he’s faster than me. I’ve seen a YouTube video of him at 16 doing weird dancing…That’s not the guy I’m fighting. This is a guy who’s going to try and hurt me, which I’m accustomed to, and he’s going to be greatly mistaken.”
Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul, supported by Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, goes down on July 20 on Netflix.