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Jake Paul's much-hyped boxing match against Mike Tyson is looming soon, with the two fighters going at it on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
In an interview published Tuesday, Paul spoke with Seth Abramovitch of the Hollywood Reporter and explained his strategy for beating the 58-year-old Tyson, who was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world from 1987 to 1990.
"The strategy for beating Tyson, Jake explains to me over breakfast, is 'to just box on the outside and then use my footwork to be more agile and get him chasing me — and then attack him when he's out of position. That should frustrate him.' His opponent, he suspects after studying hours of Tyson fight tape, will try 'to trap me on the ropes and then get blows off to angles on each side.'"
Paul, a 27-year-old social media and YouTube star, is 10-1 in his boxing career with seven wins by knockout. He last fought in July against mixed martial artist/bare-knuckle boxer Mike Perry, defeating him via sixth-round TKO.
Paul should have plenty of tape to parse through on Tyson. The ex-champ went 50-6 with two no-contests during his illustrious career. In his prime, he was an absolute superstar, wrecking his opponents left and right.
At one point, Tyson held a 37-0 record with 33 knockouts. Tyson's matches routinely ended early, perhaps none more notoriously than when he beat Michael Spinks by first-round KO in 91 seconds to retain his heavyweight titles in 1988.
The back end of Tyson's professional career didn't go as well. Most notably, he suffered a massive upset loss to Buster Douglas to relinquish the heavyweight crown in 1990 and the infamous ear-biting incident that led to a disqualification against Evander Holyfield in 1997.
Tyson last fought in June 2005.
That said, it'll be interesting to see how the 58-year-old fares against Paul. Obviously, age works against him, as does nearly two decades outside of the ring. But Tyson was also an elite athlete in his prime and could very well have something in the tank for one more go in the ring.
