'The fight is the party': Mike Tyson recalls boxing's glory days ahead of fight against Jake Paul | Boxing

TJust after 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, madness rolled through an anonymous breakfast bar in Arlington, just outside Dallas. Sleepy guests stared at a series of television screens showing images of two opposing men on NBC's early morning newscast. Before them, a polite host promised that Friday night's faux exchange in North Texas between “58-year-old boxing icon Iron Mike Tyson and problem child Jake Paul” would take us “back to the glory days of boxing.” ”

As if we needed any more convincing, the screen filled with the shaggy, bearded face of Paul, “the 27-year-old YouTube sensation,” praising the owners of the Dallas Cowboys for embracing his vision, “the greatest fight in the world.” “Shared the History of Boxing with us” at their AT&T Stadium, just 10 miles down the road from where we sat and drank our lukewarm coffee.

We didn't hear the ghosts of Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali wailing in pain. Had they instead been forced to listen to the chatter of the world in 2024, they might have laughed.

Twelve hours later, Tyson and Paul held a public workout at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, a 20-minute drive from Arlington, to kick-start this surreal fight week that will culminate in fisticuffs on Netflix. Tyson was said to be “wild” as he pushed his cornerman against the ropes. The trainer wore body armor that absorbed the blows, while Tyson showed good head movement during some relatively quick combinations. But for a former world champion it's easy when no one hits back.

Tyson looked exhausted after this burst of activity and it's hard to say how he'll handle ten two-minute rounds against a man 31 years his junior. Paul is a novice pro but Tyson looked grim as he waited in the ring for his interview.

A black towel was draped around his bare shoulders as a young woman turned to the crowd. “Texas, you better get louder,” she bellowed. Sweat trickled down Tyson's sad old face as he waited patiently.

“Mr Mike Tyson, it's completely different from seeing it on the phone or online to witnessing it here,” said the woman enthusiastically, praising his short training. “It’s something spectacular that I don’t think any of us have ever seen before.”

I remembered the last time I was alone with Tyson and his trainers in a Las Vegas gym in 1991. It was a closed sparring session and before I interviewed him he was working with Jesse Ferguson. When they fought five years earlier, Tyson said he tried to ram Ferguson's nose into his brain before knocking him unconscious.

The same unhinged malevolence remained with Tyson in 1991, and it was unsettling to see him ripping left hooks into Ferguson's flabby waist and long right crosses to the jaw with serious intent. The force of these punches sent sweat and water spraying into the air as if Tyson had hit a small geyser hidden in his sparring partner's skull. When I felt some of the sticky wetness on my face, I retreated to a safe distance.

Tyson looked scary, but his best years as a fighter were already behind him. The fighter I saw that afternoon was no match for the world champion who, in 1988, destroyed the previously outstanding Michael Spinks with a display of fury and skill that captured the appeal of boxing in the 91 seconds it lasted.

Thirty-six years after that career high, Tyson was asked what he has learned about himself since he began training for Paul. The former baddest man on the planet paused, then said, “That I'm tougher than I thought I was, because when I agreed to this fight and started training, I thought, 'What the hell was I thinking?' But I completed the process. The fight is the party. All the hard work is done.”

Tyson was reminded that Netflix has 282 million subscribers and he is expected to fight in front of the biggest audience of his career on Friday night. He was asked if he ever thought he would fight Jake Paul on a night like this.

He shook his head desperately and spread his hands. “Never in a million years,” Tyson said in his soft, lisping voice.

Tyson was asked about his family and, perhaps a little hard of hearing these days, muttered, “Please say that again.”

Finally, he made a little joke that all aging fathers could understand: “To my children, I'm a nobody…they take me for granted. They talk a lot of nonsense to me that no one else would.”

But he smiled as he suggested that on Friday night they would “find out that their dad is very special.”

Tyson, understanding the historic greatness of Johnson, Louis and Ali and his own lesser place in the heavyweight pantheon, was asked what it would mean if he could beat Paul. Admirably, he didn't dare answer the question.

“All I can say is 'Thank God,'” Tyson said.

He was long gone when the same woman introduced “The Disruptor,” the man who revolutionized boxing in four years…the most influential figure in boxing today…it’s the problem child, Jake “El Gallo” Paul!”

Wearing a red rooster wig in homage to his nickname in Puerto Rico, where he now lives, Paul cut an absurd and stocky figure. After his blistering workout he said: “I feel really good, sharp, powerful and explosive. It’s going to be a short night for Mike.”

But he admitted his mother, who is clearly old enough to remember the terror Tyson once instilled through boxing, was worried. “She's nervous. She doesn’t like watching Mike Tyson throw punches because she’s a bit scared.”

The YouTuber dressed as a rooster turned to his mother and said, “But mom, I promise you, I was built for this, I'm meant for this.” I, Jake Joseph Paul, will knock out Mike Tyson on November 15th. It’s in the damn history books.”