Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson sanctioned as a professional contest…

The fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul has been sanctioned as a professional contest by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations. The fight will happen over 8, 2minute rounds with both fighters wearing 14-ounce gloves. The result of the fight will be recorded on both fighters’ records.

The 57-year-old former undisputed Heavyweight champion of the World will be stepping into the ring against a 27-year-old prospect who has 6KO victories in 9 of his wins. In any other circumstance, the World would see through the fighter’s mirage and witness the young, hungry fighter attempting to claim some the older fighter’s legacy as his own with a win.

The growth of crossover boxing has continued to come under controversy, with many seeing the spectacle as a cash-grab that is doing very little to benefit the sport of boxing. I will not argue that the crossover side of boxing doesn’t bring new eyes to the sport, it does. However, the over saturation of entertainment with these shows have led to the real dangers of the sport being overlooked.

The reason why boxing is as entertaining as it is because each fight is a level playing field. What we have with Jake Paul and Mike Tyson is two fighters at very different stages of their career's. One is retired and doesn’t even have a career in boxing anymore; the other, whilst beginning as a social media star, has built their career as any other prospect would, fighting journeymen or fighters with a higher profile and lesser boxing ability than themselves.

Jake Paul was quick to defend the fight being sanctioned as a professional contest, explaining ‘Mike wanted a professional fight, Netflix wanted a professional fight.’

This is a clear deflection of responsibility; did Jake Paul want a professional fight? Most likely.

Mike Tyson wanting his fight with Paul to be sanctioned as a professional contest is irrelevant. Of course he did, he was, and in his mind is, a professional fighter. It is up to the people around Tyson who should be saving him from such situations like this.

The commercial value of Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson is massive, with the AT&T Stadium expected to be sold out on July 20, but when the safety of those involved is put at a higher risk, is it really worth it?

The undercard of July 20 is full of excellent match ups, including the rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano as well as brilliant 50/50 Lightweight fight between undefeated fighters Ashton ‘H20’ Sylve and Floyd Schofield. The other cross over contest featuring on the card is fight between former WBC Middleweight World champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and former UFC star Darren Till.