'It's a freakshow and an insult to boxing - but I'll be watching Tyson v Paul'

'It's a freakshow and an insult to boxing - but I'll be watching Tyson v Paul'

Even people like me aghast at the idea of Mike Tyson fighting celebrity YouTuber Jake Paul will be watching on Friday night.

Even if you have only a passing interest in boxing, you’ll be tempted to see what all the fuss is about. Your teenage kids and young adults are even more likely to be among the 300 million homes into which Netflix will stream the fight in the early hours of Saturday.

It’s a freak show crossover between the old and the new.

Fifty-eight-year-old Tyson, the ageing fighter, once topped the bill as the Baddest Man on the Planet – versus Paul the 27-year-old with 20million subscribers on YouTube, whose first fight was a so-called

white-collar boxing contest for office workers.

Yet, bizarrely, the Texan has more name recognition among young people than some of the most celebrated Prime Ministers this country has ever had.

It’s a heresy. An insult to boxing. Traditionalists are disgusted and neutrals fear for the safety of Tyson who lost 26lb in May after an ulcer flare-up left him throwing up blood and, in his words, “defecating tar”.

And yet it is already predicted to be one of the most-watched boxing bouts of all time. It harnesses two huge audiences: Gen X who grew up marvelling at Tyson, the ferocious human pitbull and winner 44 of his 58 fights by knockout.

And Paul, whose ability to tap into the Gen Z and A market of both young men and women, is as freakish as the fight itself. I’ll be sat watching it for a variety of reasons.

Tyson was the undisputed world heavyweight champion for 13 years, winning his first title fight aged 20.

He knocked out one fighter, Marvis Frazier, after just 30 seconds. Another, opponent Michael Spinks, was knocked out after 91 seconds.

Tyson’s devastating punching power in the eighties and nineties was such that the lay debate at the time was whether you’d take just one punch – or even step into the ring with him – for, say, £1million.

Since those heady days, Tyson has – as my daughter said when I mentioned him to her ahead of this column – “fallen off”.She’s right too. Ahead of this fight he has been on social media insisting: “The difference between me and Jake is that he is a manufactured killer. TV and papers made him a manufactured killer. I’m a natural born killer”.

The ramped-up rhetoric is in keeping with boxing’s need to push itself to extremes to attract new audiences.

The moral concern horse has long since bolted.

But the truth is that this one doesn’t need selling. VIP ringside seats are already going for more than £1.5million.

Analysts are already monitoring what could yet be a blueprint for the way other sports, such as NFL and possibly even football, could be streamed in this country.

A celebrity YouTuber against a genuine sporting legend isn’t just the future of sport, it is already here.

Nor is it this fight about determining who is the better boxer.

It is about who knows how to sell the show. With both men set to earn around £31million, hype and hard cash matter far more than legacy.

With death, destruction and the collapse of the old world order all around us, Netflix has tapped into peoples’ need for escapism.

On Saturday night the streaming service will find itself a haven for those seeking a few hours of just that.

Even if you are not planning on watching it, your kids and their friends almost certainly will be.

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