Mike Tyson’s former sparring partner, Joe Egan, expects ‘Iron’ to pull his punches against Jake Paul.
On Friday, November 15, Tyson will return to the ring for a clash with ‘The Problem Child’ inside the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Airing live on Netflix, the event is expected to be one of the most-watched combat sports events of all time despite being maligned by both fans and pundits over the ridiculous 31-year age gap between the two combatants.
Upon initial announcement, everyone expected the fight to be nothing more than a glorified sparring session, much like Tyson’s bout with Roy Jones Jr. at the Staples Center (now known as Crypto.com Arena) in 2020. However, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations sanctioned the contest as a professional bout.
As a result, knockouts will be allowed, though Egan — who spent two years living and training alongside a young Tyson at Cus D’Amato’s Catskills Boxing Gym in New York — doesn’t expect it to come to that.
“Jake Paul has probably boxed as Mike Tyson on Nintendo and Gameboy a million times, and now he’s getting to share the ring with one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time,” Egan told talkSPORT.com. “For me, it’s going to be a glorified sparring session. When Mike boxed Roy Jones Jr he hit Roy with a body shot and sunk him – and Mike knew he could hurt Roy Jones. Anybody that Mike hits is going to hurt, probably knockout as well but he carried Roy Jones.
“I never believed Mike Tyson could carry anybody because when I sparred him at Catskill, every punch he threw was with bad intentions. He was a vicious, ferocious, savage heavyweight. To see him mellow with age is wonderful and to see what he did with Roy Jones is incredible. Jake Paul was on that undercard and when he saw Mike pull his punches they probably felt confident.”
Jake Paul commended for stepping inside the squared circle with Mike Tyson
Still, Egan was willing to commend Jake Paul for choosing to get inside the ring with one of the heaviest hitters in boxing history, even if he doesn’t expect to see ‘Iron’ go full force come fight night.
“You’ve got to admire him for getting in the ring with Mike Tyson but I don’t think Mike will go full force on him,” Egan continued. “I don’t believe that because if Mike went full force on Jake Paul, he could seriously hurt him, never mind about the age. Mike will have lost a lot of speed with age but he won’t have lost his power and George Foreman showed that when he knocked out Michael Moorer in the tenth round at 45 years of age.
“As soon as Michael Moorer slowed down, George knocked him out. The power is always going to be there but the speed will diminish.”
