While many looking on from the outside have denounced the newly announced Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, it’s being lauded inside the sport.
The legendary and controversial Tyson, who will be 58 at the time of the fight, agreed to an exhibition bout with the 27-year-old Paul, a polarizing YouTuber-turned-boxer, on July 20 at AT&T Stadium and will be exclusively streamed on Netflix.
It quickly got panned by fans given Tyson’s age and Paul’s continual insistence he wants to be taken seriously as a real professional boxer.
But how do voices within boxing view the bout?
“It’s not a joke at all,” Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, one of the most influential promoters in the sport, told The Post hours after the bout was announced. “One thing about me, I will always give credit where credit is due. That’s a power move. That’s some s–t I would do. It’s a power move, and congrats to all those who put it together. I know Jake spearheaded it, congrats to Mike Tyson.
“That’s a power move, because what Jake Paul is doing, he’s not thinking today. This is for down the road. He’s putting it out there in front of the world. It’s some s–t that I would do. He’s thinking outside the box, and I respect that, because that’s me all day. It’s definitely a power move.”
Ellerbe was instrumental in Floyd Mayweather’s iconic boxing career and has since handled promotions for Gervonta Davis, currently one of boxing’s biggest superstars and attractions.
Ellerbe also has WBA super lightweight champion Rolando Romero, who is certainly polarizing himself, in his stable as well.
And he feels the same way.
“That’s gonna bring so many viewers to the sport,” Romero told The Post. “That right there is gonna get everybody paid. Obviously it does concern me a bit about Tyson’s age and stuff, but Tyson takes care of himself, from what I’ve noticed. He was playing with Roy Jones Jr. [in a 2020 exhibition bout]. That’s still Mike Tyson. The last thing to go away is your power. I watched my dad [a former professional boxer in Cuba] at that same age knock people out. We’ll see.
“It brings a lot of viewers to the sport. As long as they bring viewers to the sport, it’s good.”
