we shouldn’t have left the memory box, Mike – Libération

The evening started with Mike Tyson’s ass «mondovision», an expression repeated many times by Netflix and its 285 million potential viewers to sell his fight, which heralded, it must be said, nothing good. If the day before, it was Jake Paul’s mother who wanted to settle the score at this “fucking little bitch” of Tyson, this time it is the son of Iron Mike, Netflix microphone in his hands, who questions his father about the “lack of respect” by Jake Paul. Before the father, a quick response, turns around and looks like nothing, revealing this wrinkled posterior of a former 58-year-old terror. In short, if the message had not yet been understood, it was now clear.

America’s Favorite Slapstick

In the dead of night from Friday November 15 to Saturday November 16, the male influencer with millions of subscribers Jake Paul, known as “The Problem Child”, and the ring icon met delivered to a parody fight in Arlington, Texas, in an arena swollen to 72,000 spectators. Scheduled for July 20, the fight had to be postponed after Tyson suffered a violent ulcer attack on the plane. This is the first pro fight since 2005 for the legend, facing America’s favorite slapstick, who arrived in the world of boxing four years ago after a career of making bad jokes on Vine and YouTube.

Paul, born in 1997, arrives to the whistles of the audience in a convertible Bentley tuned with tongues of fire. In the low rider, at his side, his big daddy brother Logan. In the trunk, a pigeon cage, a reference to the passion of his evening opponent, and In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins in the soundscape, a nod to Tyson’s vocal performance in Very Bad Trip.

For Tyson, draped in a torn black towel, the opposite effect could have worked if he had not almost tripped over the carpet. And then, we see his face furrowed with wrinkles, this tattoo which has become lava which blocks his face, this knee brace which encircles his left leg. He is of the age given to him by his past exploits, pixelated images from his ABC primes of yesteryear broadcast on the room’s giant screens.

Harmless chicken

First round: the scolded, the one who compressed the air after the urge of the bell, has disappeared, but there remains this swing of the bust which revives forgotten hours, this look of a man capable of homicide in a second. But it’s like jumping into the attic: unpacking the first box of memories, it’s nice, then the cloud of dust hits your throat. Second round and the evening is over. Tyson fights the amble. In time, before the years of excess of all kinds, of depression, of coke, it was Mach 1. Movement of the trunk to the right, to the left, boom, hook to split the man from his shadow. There, the spark, the one that started from the tips of his toes and in the same burst of the whole body exploded in his gloves, produced a pouet harmless. He throws punches that fail a meter from their target. Before the fight, French commentators asked: “We’ve all asked ourselves one day: what’s it like to get a potato from Mike Tyson?” In the end, only 18 punches landed on his opponent, compared to 78 for Paul.

Opposite, in his silver shorts and equivalent shoes, an outfit supposedly valued at 380 carats and 1 million dollars, the blonde is in control. In the third round, he sends three lefts which make Tyson wobble. At the end of the round, although timed at two minutes (and not three, as usual) the latter is breathing like an ox, cardio gone adrift. Paul could finish him but he holds back his blows like his power. The end of the fight is fitting: Tyson’s legs are trembling.

This image, at the end of the opposition, Jake Paul joining the gloves and lowering a respectful head, while Tyson extends his grip to shake his hand. There were then ten seconds left on the clock but surely it was ten seconds too many for this comedy between two men thirty-one years apart. “I am happy, I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself, I was happy with what I was able to do,” slammed Tyson after his defeat, 7 rounds to 1. “It’s such an honor, Mike Tyson is a legend, the greatest in history, he inspired me. It was very hard as expected,” said the other. Both will receive a purse of at least $20 million each, according to reports. A big-money evening, where the most scathing blow lies here: Mike Tyson, “the most dangerous man in the world”, has become a sparring partner for the simple-minded influencer Jake Paul.