[ad_1]
NEW YORK — Mike Tyson is 58 and has had to postpone his return to the ring because of a health problem.
Once considered the most dangerous boxer in the world, the boxer has put himself in danger by putting on the gloves again. Yet when asked on Sunday why he was continuing with his fight against Jake Paul, he was quick to answer.
“Because I can. Who else can do it but me? Who else would he fight to make it happen?” Tyson said, pointing to the crowd, at a packed news conference where fans cheered the former heavyweight champion and booed Paul.
“We just have to listen to the facts. We have a YouTuber fighting the greatest fighter of all time.”
Tyson and Paul have resumed preparations for their match which is now scheduled for November 15 at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. They were scheduled to face off on July 20 before Tyson suffered nausea and dizziness during a flight from Miami to Los Angeles in May, with his representatives attributing the incident to an ulcer problem.
Tyson said Sunday that he resumed training two or three weeks ago and was feeling fine.
“Hey, listen, I’m ready,” Tyson said.
The undisputed heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) retired in 2005 and returned for an exhibition match against Roy Jones in 2020. Fans seem excited for his return, many of them back Sunday as more turned out for the fighters’ news conference on the final day of the Fanatics Fest event in New York.
Paul (10-1, 7 K.O.) sparred with the fighters on stage as well as fans who opposed him.
Paul said, “Hey New York, you’re just like Mike Tyson. You were good 20 years ago.”
Tyson’s most impressive days are actually even earlier than that, and Paul understands he won’t get much credit for a win against such a weak opponent. Still, the former Disney Channel star, who insists he will become a boxing champion, said there is still an advantage to fighting Tyson now.
“Big moments, big pressure, big stages, one of the greatest guys to ever do this, more experience than me, more fights than me, I’m going to learn a lot in this fight and through this training camp,” Paul said. “So, it’s going to help me in my future fights and all the things that I want to achieve.”
He fought after Tyson withdrew, stopping bare-knuckle fighting champion Mike Perry in the sixth round on July 20. Perry, like many of Paul’s other fighters, does not come from a boxing background, but from the world of mixed martial arts.
He would have loved to fight Tyson then and is now eager for a second chance.
“I was already ready, you needed some rest,” he told Tyson. “Is your stomach still hurting?”
The fight, which will stream on Netflix, will be an official bout, albeit with eight two-minute rounds and heavier gloves than usual. The most genuine boxing match on the card may be the one before it, when super lightweight champion Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano face off in a rematch of Taylor’s thrilling win in the first-ever women’s boxing match at Madison Square Garden in 2022.
Then Paul will try to show what he wants to be in boxing, or maybe Tyson can show what he was before. He said his health problems will not stop him from doing so.
“I had a little problem. I got sick, but I’m fine now,” Tyson said. “I feel good.”
[ad_2]
Source link