I’m nothing like as avid a fan of the Sweet Science as my brother Jeff is, and never claimed to be. Even so, I’ve been watching boxing since way back when Muhammed Ali was still Cassius Clay. So gimme a break here, I’m not a total dilettante. Be all that as it may, I found this story amusing as hell.
Mike Tyson slapped Jake Paul for stepping on his foot as their pre-fight weigh-in boiled over.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Tyson smacked Paul in the face at the Las Colinas, Texas, event ahead of their Friday boxing match at AT&T Stadium.
Paul responded, “He hits like a bitch … He must die.”
Tyson claims to have not even heard him.
The smack was Tyson’s reaction to upstart Paul stepping on his toe, which he thinks may have been on purpose.
“I was in my socks and he had on shoes,” Tyson told The Post moments after the weigh-in. “He stepped on my toe because he is a f–king a–hole. I wanted to think it happened by accident. But now I think it may have happened on purpose.
On purpose? You bet your sweet bippy it was—seems like before most any heavyweight bout, there’s usually some hyped-up half-a-fracas or other along these lines at the weigh-in. Still: amusing. Video at the link, for those of you who are into this sort of thing.
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It’s a scripted production IMO. As is true of nearly everything, $$$ corrupts.
That POS Hairdo King ruined what was a decent sport when I was a kid.
Concur
Didn’t watch, but it seems it went as expected, a show.
The slap was by far the most entertaining part of the whole mess. Anyone who was a wrestling fan and knows the terminology knows what they saw last night. It was a complete work.
Tyson was the babyface – the good guy.
Paul was the heel – the bad guy.
They couldn’t believably have a legitimate contest. Tyson didn’t have the stamina, even with only 8 rounds and the rounds being cut to 2 minutes. And frankly, nobody wanted to see Jake Paul knock Tyson out, especially considering the risk of even more brain damage to Iron Mike. I doubt that even Jake would have wanted that.
So, they worked it. The first couple of rounds, when Tyson had some gas in the tank, went to Tyson. Then, Paul took over. Every now and then they’d give Tyson a hope spot with a punch or two, but Paul would quickly cut him off. The last 2-3 rounds, Paul was basically propping Tyson up and obviously not throwing punches. Every now and then he’d leave his guard down so Tyson could get in a shot, but some of those times (particularly in the 8th), I don’t think Tyson had the strength in him to swing. It reminded me of the old days of territory wrestling, when the world champion would come and wrestle the local champ. The world champion’s job was to make sure that it looked like the local guy had a real chance at taking the world title, and to make him look good – no matter how bad a worker the local guy really was. Harley Race and Ric Flair did a lot of 60-minute time limit draws in those days. They kept the belt, the local guy kept his heat, and it created energy for the rematches.
Well, they couldn’t do a draw believably, so they decided it on points (making the point count closer than it really was), and Paul got the decision. The heel keeps his heat, and the big money is in the fans wanting to see the heel get his ass kicked. That’s intact for the next palooka Paul fights.
Another term they had in the old wrestling days was “stealing a house.” That’s what happened when they’d bring in some attraction who was likely to put on a shitty match, but that the promoter knew the fans would want to see – once. Once the fans got a look at the attraction, they couldn’t do it again.
Netflix stole a house last night.