YouTube boxing sensation Jake Paul will collide with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson on 15th November at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The duo will go head-to-head in an eight-two-minute round fight sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, wearing 14-ounce gloves. 

With less than a month to go until the showdown, Paul’s arch-rival KSI‘s manager, Mams Taylor, is stirring the pot by calling the fight an exhibition, citing the rules, even though it’s officially billed as a professional bout. While appearing in an interview with Fred Beck on YouTube, the English boxing promoter took not-so-subtle digs at the Netflix blockbuster. 

Taylor began by emphasizing how big of a draw Mike Tyson is, saying, “It’s on Netflix. Mike Tyson’s a massive massive massive name. One of the biggest names, if not the biggest name, in boxing. However, he’s about 60, you know, and it’s an exhibition.” He further speculated a hidden stipulation, which prevents either boxer from punching each other’s heads. 

However, there are no such rules in place, although, that was the case in Tyson’s 2020 exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr., something Taylor didn’t fail to mention. “It’s ten two-minute rounds. I don’t know if they’re going to say don’t hit each other in the head, like Mike did with Roy Jones. I don’t know what the rule set is but it definitely isn’t a pro fight because no pro fights for men are two minutes long. They’re not in [10-ounce] gloves, so I don’t know how it’s a pro fight,” Taylor told Fred Beck. 

He refused to believe that the bout was a pro-fight but gave the organizers props for coming out with a brilliant business decision. Tylor seemed almost disgusted with the idea that boxers with a 31-year age gap would fight each other, as he claimed he or his company would not engage in such a fight. 

He added, “I think there’s got to be a moral sort of line where you say, ‘Okay, I won’t cross this line no matter what.’” It’s also worth mentioning that a fight involves 10-ounce gloves and three-minute rounds for it to be sanctioned as a pro fight. However, TLDR seems to have made a special exception for the Paul-Tyson fight. But the question is, WHY? 

TDLR Communications Manager on Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson special rules

Tela Mange, Communications Manager at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, agrees that using a 14-ounce glove in a pro fight is unprecedented in Texas and will be its first. According to a report from USA Today, Mange said, “We’ve had a couple of men’s bouts that were professional debuts that were two-minute rounds, but it’s been a while and I haven’t been able to figure out who those were.”

When she was probed about why such an exception was made for the Paul vs. Tyson fight, she revealed, “If two contestants request terms that do not represent a safety issue, and are not in violation of statute and/or rules, then we can agree to regulate the event and ensure those terms are enforced.”

She also claimed that the use of heavier gloves and shorter rounds doesn’t make the fight more dangerous for eighter fighters. Despite that, it’s quite obvious that the exception was solely made to give Tyson an edge in the fight.  

That being said, even though Mams Taylor is expected to be biased against the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight because of his working relationship with Paul’s rival KSI, the points he made do carry merit. If the fight is a professional bout and Tyson is fit to fight, so much so that TLDR is sanctioning it, why make exceptions to the rules? Are they worried Tyson is at some sort of risk? What do you think?