Everyone’s talking about the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight. The 57-year-old former world heavyweight champ vs the YouTuber who looks like he drowned in Domestos. I may not be the only one who thinks the world has gone crazy, but it’s entertainment, however you look at it, and yes, I’ll be watching.
Some say they’ve probably pre-agreed upon a draw, others say it’s a one-punch knockout waiting to happen. Those in the youth camp claim Jake Paul can climb fences faster, but for me, they fall upon deaf ears.
We wanted to take you deep inside the mind – and training camp – of the man we’re backing (Iron Mike, obviously), and because we’re Loaded, we delivered.
To ensure our bets will be well-placed come fight night on July 20th, I headed out to spend an afternoon with the man who is (still) ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’. Almost two years have passed since our last sit-down chat. During the previous meeting, I ended up on the best trip of my life after ingesting an innocent-looking sweet. We’d been putting away edibles like they were Haribos, talking about the launch of Tyson 2.0, the cannabis company that’s taken the world by storm.
This time, I hit Mike up in Vegas to pay a visit to his private training camp. Different talk. Very different Mike.
The funny thing is, it started as a bit of a joke for me, the Jake Paul fight, that is. In 2022, I asked Mike whether a JP clash was a possibility. When Mike said, “I’ll fight anyone”, to be frank, I thought he meant anyone except an influencer. But then Jake did take down the likes of Nate Diaz.
‘I have to confess, I kind of thought you were joking when you said you’d fight ‘anyone’, but now it's happening, Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul,’ I tell Mike as we perch on the side of his private boxing ring. He’s about to go train and he’s dying to get sparring. There are two sides to Tyson. Good old ‘Uncle Mike’, the chilled, cannabis-smoking dad who does the school run, and ‘Iron Mike’, the dude who rips ears off and then makes a career of it.
He’s sharp, he’s focused, he’s not going to miss his one o’clock training slot. I want to know how he truly perceives Jake as an opponent. As I pose the question, ‘Do you think he has a chance of taking you down?’ I’m expecting a straight ‘no’ with a hint of a smile, or something to break up the iron-grey cloud that’s hanging over Mike’s mood.
“Well, I didn't sign the fight to be taken down or anything,” he says. “I guess I'm just ready. What can I say? That I'm going to kill him? I'm just ready.”
From those I’ve asked, the majority seem to think there is no way Iron Mike is going to lose this fight. He's looking sharp. He's got the experience that Jake doesn't have. Just like Bugzy Malone pointed out in his chat with Loaded, Jake cannot train for that experience. He cannot buy that experience. However, Mike himself says that Jake has grown and progressed as a fighter.
‘Is there anything about Jake’s style or his technique that can concern you a little bit?’ I ask. Once again, I’m expecting a straight ‘no’, but Mike has a pocket full of curveballs today.
“Well, you can't underestimate anybody,” he says. “Let's look at it. I'm almost 60 years old. He's 27. I haven’t fought in years, he's been active, and so maybe he does stand the chance, who knows? But we're going to find out on July 20th.”
I was intrigued to know what Mike’s game plan is. Everyone knows you need a bloody game plan. Given Jake’s youth and fitness levels, would a round-1 KO approach be a tactical hit? “I have no game plan. My plan is to win,” says Mike. “That's all I'm concerned with is winning.”
Ok, so no game plan, no self-doubt, but everything to prove… and to lose. ‘You seem really relaxed about this,’ I comment. “Well, what do you want me to do? Start sweating,” Mike asks me. I’ve never seen him sweat. Not even under the blazing sun with a joint in his mouth and a double-breasted suit on. There is no method to his mental attitude either.
“All that tracking stuff is just not who I am,” he says. “I’m not about staying eight hours-sleep focused. I just know what I have to do to participate in a main event fight. I've been doing this most of my life –since I was 12 years old.
“This is just what I do. I just know how to fight. I do other things. I have other businesses, but this is what I truly love to do. I'm looking forward to changing perceptions in biology. I want people to have a different perspective when they say, ‘Oh, I feel old. I saw some 30-year-old guy and oh, I feel old. You don't know what feeling old is. Feeling old means you feel like you are conquered, you are vanquished. I’m not conquered.”
I ask Mike whether he feels as fit as he did in his heyday. “No, no. No way. There’s just no way I will ever feel as fit as I did in my youth again,” he says. I reassure him he looks insane –which he does. And scary as fuck.
“I'm just not going to be that guy,” he says. “That's just not true. I'll lie to you. But then I'm lying to the people. I'm just prepared to fight and prepared to win.”
The 80,000-capacity Dallas Cowboys Stadium will house the fight, which is being live-streamed on Netflix as the very first live boxing event. It’s a Pro fight, not an exhibition match. Both fighters are keen to let the fans know that. But Mike says he’s not nervous.
“I’m not nervous because this is what I do,” he says. “I like to entertain. Why would I be nervous? Of course, you're going to have a little apprehension, but that's part of being involved with entertainment. That's part of being involved with fighting or participating in any sport.”
I wonder about the level of respect from one man to another, especially after Mike was responsible for introducing Jake to the main ring as an undercard for his match against Roy Jones Jr.
‘Jake Paul, you kind of introduced him to boxing, really, but do you have a lot of respect for him now as a fighter?’ I ask. “A hundred percent,” Mike says. “There's no doubt about it- respected. But as you said, I started him; now I'm going to finish him.”
Ironically, at the age of 57, could this be the biggest fight of Iron Mike’s life?
“Every fight's the biggest fight of your life,” he says. “You never know when your life will be over during the fight. Every fight's the biggest fight of your life.”
Mike tells me, “Nutrition doesn’t win fights, people win fights” and that he hasn’t changed up his food that much. He wants to flip reverse the whole age gap, and that’s that.
The final Loaded question: “What’s going to happen if you win this fight, Mike?”
His reply: “When I win this fight, what's going to happen? I'm going to change the whole idea of biology. People will no longer think I'm almost 60 years old and I'm useless. Some people may say ‘He's too fucking old. He's just an old motherfucker. He is not going to beat this young guy. Well, you'll see on the night of the fight.”
@tysonpro
