Netflix’s second installment of Countdown: Paul vs Tyson, which prefaces the pair’s much-anticipated boxing match on November 15, peers into both boxer’s camps as they prepare to fight.
The contest has caught the public’s imagination, pitching Tyson against Paul, a 58-year-old legend of the sport, versus a 27-year-old YouTuber who has crossed over into the boxing arena after conquering social media. Boxing Hall-of-Famer and subsequent actor Tyson is an ex-heavyweight champion of the world, with a legitimate claim to have been the sport’s most visible and controversial figure of the last 30 years.
Many boxing experts also consider him to have been one of the sport’s best. Tyson had a 20-year professional career between 1985 and 2005, notching 19 knockout wins in his first 19 professional fights, before becoming the sport’s youngest-ever world heavyweight champion at 21 when he defeated Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas in 1986. Tyson defended the title nine times, appearing unbeatable, before losing to James “Buster” Douglas in Tokyo in February 1990 in what many consider to be boxing’s greatest-ever upset. However, 34 years on, the Tyson/Paul bout promises a new and surprising chapter in his career.
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Tyson’s loss to Douglas signaled a spectacular fall from grace, both in and out of the ring. Before the Douglas fight, the multimillionaire’s private life had spun out of control; his tempestuous marriage to actress Robin Givens was rarely out of the headlines, and he’d split from long-time trainer and confidante Kevin Rooney, his only connection to the man who’d adopted him as a teenager and guided his professional career, Cus D’Amato. D’Amato death in 1985 hit Tyson hard, and he was ill-equipped for the fame, fortune, and public scrutiny that inevitably surrounds a world heavyweight champion.
There followed a highly-publicized rape conviction in 1992, which saw Tyson sentenced to six years imprisonment, gaining parole after three years incarcerated at the Indiana Youth Center. Despite regaining his world title, in 1997 a much-diminished Tyson surrendered his legacy and reputation in two losses to Evander Holyfield, the second by disqualification for biting his opponent’s ear in 1997. Tyson continued fighting for money, his drawing power intact, but by 2005, after an embarrassing loss to journeyman Kevin McBride, he quit the sport.
The McBride fight appeared to have put Mike Tyson’s fighting ambitions to bed: “I felt like I was 120 years old. I don’t think I have it anymore,” he told The New York Times after the fight. He retired to an upscale enclave, Paradise Valley, near Phoenix, Arizona to spend time with his 350 prize pigeons, a lifelong obsession. There remained several brushes with the law, a much-publicized declaration of bankruptcy in 2003 with debts of more than $20 million, and many visits to rehabilitation centers to try to conquer issues with depression, drugs, and alcohol addiction.
In 2013, he published his autobiography, Undisputed Truth, in which he gave an honest and unexpurgated account of his life and troubles. The book ushered in a new relationship between Tyson and his audience and led to an international Undisputed Truth Tour, in which a visibly overweight Tyson surprised and excelled on stage as he recounted his life experiences and missteps. Approaching 50, out of shape, and with some stability in his private life, a return to the ring appeared highly unlikely.
While there are undoubtedly many factors behind Tyson’s decision to fight Paul, the former champion has been fairly candid when it comes to his motivation. He has dismissed claims that it is a purely financial move. While commentating at a Cage Wars MMA event (via The Daily Mirror), Tyson described such accusations as “Bull****,” adding:
“I’m a man; I want to go out there and I want to expose myself to risk. Sometimes I want to see who I really am. I want to see what I’m really made out of. I want to perform in front of the world. To me, that’s all I ever knew how to do since I was 14. This fight is not going to change my life financially enough. This is just what I want to do.”
This suggests that there is something more to Tyson’s decision than the financial implications.
In 2020, a newly energized Tyson, slimmed down and with his demons apparently under control, announced an exhibition fight with fellow boxing legend Roy Jones Jnr, then 51, and himself a former multi-weight world champion. Tyson’s share of the purse was rumored to exceed $10 million and, while some pundits had conjectured that the two old pugilists might not be able to curb their natural instincts, they in fact tip-toed through eight somewhat insipid rounds of action, after which three judges awarded a draw. Tyson announced afterward that he’d like to fight more exhibition bouts.
…the old champion is seen training hard and appears to have recovered a little of his trademark menace.
In Countdown: Paul vs Tyson, the old champion is seen training hard and appears to have recovered a little of his trademark menace. He’s shown bashing up his padded-up coaches and heavy bags, looking fit and fabulous against a static opponent that doesn’t hit back. The docuseries, of course, plays down the recurring sciatica that had him wheelchair-bound, causing a postponement of the fight last June, or the ulcers he suffers from, or the general physical dissipation that accompanies mid/old age. This Paul-Tyson fight is not an exhibition, and real punches will be thrown.
