Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul: What you need to know before the celebrity death match
The girls are fighting—and when we say girls, we mean the former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and former Disney Channel star, YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul. That’s right, Tyson and Paul are set to face off in an epic boxing match that will stream on Netflix on Friday, November 15 at 8pm ET. For those confused as to why exactly a 58-year-old former professional athlete is facing off against a 27-year-old influential bad boy, we’ve broken down every question you might have in the boxing event of the season: Paul vs. Tyson.
Who is Jake Paul again? Doesn’t he have a brother?
Yes, yes. Jake and his brother, longan, has been a public figure since his teens. The Ohio natives began their career in 2013 on the now-defunct social media platform Vine before moving to YouTube and amassing a following as professional pranksters. They eventually caught the attention of Disney Channel, which cast Jake as Dirk Mann, a vlogging teenager who would accept bold requests for series within the series. Strange. Fun fact: The 2016 movie also stars a young man Olivia Rodrigo. (In another piece of life imitating art, Logan was cast as Dirk’s brother.) Jake abruptly left the show in 2017, and since then, he’s left acting behind and become a complete influencer. As of now, Jake Paul has 20.8 million subscribers on YouTube, 27.2 million followers on Instagram and 18.2 million followers on TikTok.
Jake PaulAnadolu/Getty Images
So when did Jake become a boxer?
Gradually, over time. Paul first stepped into the ring in a white-collar (read: non-professional, no experience necessary) match against a British YouTuber Deji Olatunji. (Logan also fought Olatunji’s brother, KSI, at the event.) After winning by technical knockout in the fifth round, Paul went all-out in boxing and made his professional debut in 2020 by YouTuber AnEsonGib, aka Ali Al-Fakhri. He also won that fight by technical knockout in the first round. Having proven his honesty, “Problem Kid” Paul was off to the races. He currently holds a professional record of 10-1.
Outside of the ring, Paul is no stranger to controversy. He has been causing a ruckus ever since Strange day, filming increasingly salacious YouTube videos in which he burns mattresses and eats pasta at the end of an electric drill. (However, Jake did not post an introductory vlog an apparent suicide victim in a Japanese forest; that’s his brother.) He called it coronavirus a “hoax” and held parties at his Calabasas mansion during the lockdown, drawing the ire of the city’s mayor at the time. (He has since moved to Puerto Rico.) In 2021, a TikTok influencer named Justine Paradise accused Paul of sexual assault. Paul denied the allegation in a statement he released at the time, writing: “The claims against me are 100% false.”
That same year, Paul’s house raided by the FBI after he was charged with a misdemeanor for entering a shopping mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, while it was being looted. (Paul denied any involvement in looting or vandalism at the mall. The charges were dropped and the raid did not result in any federal charges.) He is a felon admitted supporting Trumpand his brother interviewed the president-elect on his podcast, impulsive, before the election.
Alright! Isn’t Mike Tyson a little old for this?
You might say so. The 58-year-old tennis player left the professional arena in 2005, when he retired with a record of 50-6. During his career from 1985 to 2005, Tyson was more than a force to be reckoned with: He won his first 19 fights by knockout (12 of them in the first round). In 1987, he became the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title at just 20 years old. “Iron Mike” held the undisputed heavyweight title from 1987 to 1990, when he was knocked out by Buster Douglas in great sadness.
