Roy Jones Jr was the last man to face Mike Tyson in a boxing ring and has been giving his thoughts ahead of ‘Iron’ Mike’s fight against Jake Paul.
The former heavyweight champion was set to face the YouTuber-turned-boxer this weekend, but the bout was pushed back to November after he suffered an ulcer flare-up.
Unlike the exhibition clash with Jones, which ended in a draw, Paul will take on Tyson as a sanctioned professional fight, albeit with larger gloves and only over eight two minute rounds.
In an interview with All The Smoke Fight, Jones believes the early rounds will determine who wins the fight.
“It all depends on what Mike does. They’ve got 14 ounce and two minute rounds because of his age, so if Mike gets in shape to compete those 2 minute rounds for 8 rounds, they are going to be hard for anybody.
The good thing for Jake is that he’s beefed up to 230 or 240lbs. If Jake has that much weight on him now he could be a different animal because he’ll have more weight, or just as much as Mike, to be able to push Mike around, I wasn’t as big as Mike, I couldn’t push him around.
So they are kind of balancing the playing fields by allowing Jake to gain that much weight because if he can sustain 3 or 4 rounds he can win the fight, but they will be very difficult for him to sustain because Mike still punches like an animal and if you can’t push him around he’s going to beat you.”
And when speaking to Boxing King Media, the former four-weight world champion expects Tyson’s power to put Paul ‘in his place’.
“When you’re a warrior it doesn’t really matter [about age], we’re warrior’s, we don’t care about getting punched no matter what age we are, that’s what we do. If he can get in shape like he did with me to go eight rounds, he’s trouble, he’s a problem for anybody, because he’s ‘Iron’ Mike, simple.
He doesn’t know how to hold back, Mike doesn’t know how to, he’s like a pitbull and pitbulls don’t know how to play, it’s going to turn into a fight either way. Mike isn’t trying to kill Jake I don’t think, but I do think he’ll put Jake in his place and show him if I want to I can kill you and if Jake adheres to that it’ll be cool, if he doesn’t then Mike will do what he’s got to do.”
Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson takes place on November 15 in Houston, Texas and will be streamed live on Netflix.
