April 3, 2024, 11:36 BST
Updated 3 hours in the past
Image supply, Getty Images
picture caption,
Mike Tyson (proper) competed in an exhibition match towards Roy Jones Jr. in 2020
Former world champion Mike Tyson says his boxing match towards YouTuber Jake Paul on July 20 might be an exhibition match and never an official combat.
Tyson, who completed his skilled profession in 2005, will flip 58 three weeks earlier than dealing with Paul in Texas.
Paul, 27, defeated Ryan Borland in his tenth skilled combat final month.
“This known as an exhibition, however once you seek for ‘exhibition,’ you do not know what guidelines you are going to combat by. This is a combat,” Tyson mentioned.
The competitors won’t depend in the direction of your skilled document whether it is an exhibition, however might be broadcast reside on the streaming platform Netflix.
The sport might be held at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, residence of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, which has a seating capability of 80,000.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), the physique that approves boxing occasions within the state, instructed BBC Sports that it had obtained requests from promoters to carry occasions on the day, however had canceled them. No proposed combat or particulars had been disclosed.
“Under TDLR guidelines, in exhibition fights combatants put on bigger gloves (16 ounces), rounds final two minutes, and combat for fewer rounds than in sanctioned skilled bouts,” TDLR mentioned.
“There are referees in exhibitions, however there are not any judges and no winners are declared.”
Tyson’s most up-to-date exhibition match towards Roy Jones Jr. in April 2020 led to a draw.
Paul has gained 9 of his 10 boxing bouts, most of them towards former UFC fighters, together with his solely loss coming to Englishman Tommy Fury in February 2023.
“When I used to be 16, I noticed him performing some bizarre dance strikes on YouTube. That’s not the man I’m going to combat,” Tyson mentioned.
“This man goes to come back and attempt to damage me, I’m used to it, and he will make a giant mistake.”
Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick in his first title combat in November 1986, changing into the youngest heavyweight champion in historical past on the age of 20.
The American completed his profession with 50 wins and 6 losses.
Outside of boxing, he was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years of a six-year sentence, and in 1999 he served one-third of a 12-month sentence for avenue assault.