Sam Sports

The 20th of July was the date that Jake Paul was meant to fight one of the scariest boxers ever, Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, at the age of 57, Mike Tyson had to pull out of that date due to injury, and the bout has been rescheduled to the 15th of November.

Luckily for those eager to watch Jake Paul get knocked out or beaten, Jake Paul will now be facing former UFC welterweight and current Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship fighter Mike Perry on the 20th of July. So the question is: is Mike Perry a tougher fight than Mike Tyson? (I couldn’t believe I wrote that question.)

Mike Tyson was and always will be a scary, vicious fighter, but at his current age of 57, I don’t think anyone really wants to see him fight now. We all saw him fight in 2020 against Roy Jones Jr., and I don’t think any real boxing fans said, “I need to see Mike fight again.” It was average; it was a fight you would see between your two uncles at a BBQ. Seeing Tyson fight again would just be for a sliver of hope that he would knock out Paul.

Mike Perry has shown from his time in the UFC and now at BKFC that he can box. However, boxing in a pro fight compared to UFC or BKFC is completely different (just ask Nate Diaz and Paulie Malignaggi), so whether he can replicate his performances in pro boxing, we will have to wait and see.

Jake Paul, as Eddie Hearn described him, is average. He lost to Tommy Fury, who is bang average, and won against former UFC fighters whose main martial art is not boxing. But will he struggle against Mike Perry? I think he will at the beginning. Perry is so unpredictable that Paul would struggle for the first three rounds but end up winning. However, if Paul does lose, the Tyson fight, if it is still on, will be the worst sporting event streaming debut ever. But at least Katie Taylor is fighting on the undercard.