Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight officially sanctioned as professional fight
The upcoming summer bout between YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul and former world champion Mike Tyson has been officially recognized as a professional fight.
This designation means that the results of the match, scheduled for July 20th in Texas, will be recorded on both fighters’ professional records.
The fight will be subject to specific conditions, including a limitation of eight two-minute rounds and the requirement that both fighters wear 14oz gloves instead of the standard 10oz.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation confirmed that it has reviewed the records and medical histories of both Paul and Tyson and has approved the professional status of the fight, granting “certain waivers” to facilitate the event.
“The safety of the contestants competing in the ring or the octagon is always the primary concern,” the TDLR said.
Tyson, who will be 58 at the time of the fight and whose professional career ended in 2005, most recently competed in an exhibition bout in 2020 and will turn 58 three weeks before facing Paul.
Paul, meanwhile, beat Ryan Bourland in his 10th professional fight in March.
“Mike Tyson and Jake Paul signed on to fight each other with the desire to do so in a sanctioned professional fight that would have a definitive outcome,” Nakisa Bidarian of MVP Promotions said.
Tyson first claimed the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight titles simultaneously in 1987, but his tenure as the unified champion ended abruptly in 1990 when Buster Douglas defeated him in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history.
He regained the WBA and WBC titles briefly in 1996 but then lost two consecutive fights to Evander Holyfield—the second of which ended controversially when Tyson was disqualified for biting a piece of Holyfield’s ear.
Tyson has also faced legal challenges, including a rape conviction in 1992, for which he served three years of a six-year sentence, and a road rage assault in 1999, for which he served four months of a one-year sentence.
In 2020, Tyson returned to the ring for an exhibition match against fellow former world champion Roy Jones Jr. His upcoming fight with Jake Paul is set to take place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, which can accommodate 80,000 spectators.
Jake Paul, on the other hand, has a record of nine wins from 10 fights, mostly against former UFC fighters, with his only loss coming against British boxer Tommy Fury in February 2023.