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    Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fuels the debate: is this a legit fight?

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    The power seems real.

    The speed looks real.

    The sweat, the grunts, the moans – it all looks real in the viral videos of Mike Tyson preparing for his fight against Jake Paul.

    Still, the question remains: is this a real fight?

    Watching Tyson and Paul in the ring Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will help provide the answer. It should be clear whether the two will throw punches with full force and try to win a heavyweight fight scheduled for eight rounds. But until then, a real fight?

    The preliminary answer is an unequivocal “yes,” based on some protocols: The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which regulates combat sports in Texas, has sanctioned the Tyson-Paul fight as a pro fight and not an exhibition.

    Like all real fights, it is scored by three licensed judges, a winner is declared and the result counts towards the fighters’ records.

    Or the answer to whether the fight is real is a resounding ‘no’ based on the rules for the fight, which is scheduled for eight rounds. The rounds last two minutes and the gloves weigh 14 ounces instead of the standard three-minute rounds. and 10-ounce gloves.

    Others have looked beyond the specific rules when questioning the legitimacy of a fight.

    Until recent weeks, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion and the 27-year-old YouTuber have shown affection for each other as they prepare to make tens of millions of dollars.

    “It feels like two brothers wanting to fight each other in the backyard at a family reunion,” Jay Kornegay, executive vice president of race and sportsbook operations at the Westgate SuperBook, told USA TODAY Sports by text message last month. “I’m not sure how serious they will be.”

    Why a fight can be considered legitimate

    Paul is a more experienced YouTuber than a boxer, but he has fought in eleven sanctioned pro fights as of January 2020. He is 10-1 with seven knockouts.

    Tyson may not be able to turn back the clock and look like the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’. But he is 50-6 with 44 knockouts and fought Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in 2020.

    Their fight has been given legitimacy by BoxRec, the official boxing registry. The fight is already entered online as a pro fight, and there are no plans to change that when the list is updated with the outcome, said Gray Johnson, BoxRec’s chief marketing officer.

    “This is the first professional men’s fight that I can remember that will have two-minute rounds in the United States, although historically the practice is not uncommon in other countries such as the United Kingdom,” Johnson told by email USA TODAY Sports. The question of whether this is an exhibition or a pro-fight is ultimately for the Texas commission to answer.”

    A common complaint from people who refuse to watch Tyson vs. Paul as a real fight is Texas’ departure from the uniform rules set by the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC). They are calling for three-minute rounds and 10-ounce gloves instead of the two-minute rounds and 14-ounce gloves that will be used when Tyson and Paul fight.

    But ABC chairman Mike Mazzulli said membership committees only have to use uniform rules during title fights. Tyson and Paul will fight for tens of millions of dollars, but not for a title.

    “They come into the ring,” Mazzulli said. “They’re judging the fight. So it’s a real fight. Absolutely.”

    A ‘pine box’ for Jake Paul

    Last week, New York and five other states confirmed they will ban betting on the Tyson-Paul fight, mainly because they consider it an exhibition.

    That move paralleled the strong sentiment in the boxing community that this is not a true pro fight. The non-traditional rules are not the only objection.

    “I think it’s ridiculous that a 58-year-old man with arthritis and the well-known pot business and affection for it is sitting in a pro fight in a major jurisdiction and pretending it’s a real boxing match,” Lou DiBella Jr. said. well-known boxing promoter. “It’s absurd.

    “If this fight happened 30 years ago, there would have to be a pine box next to the ring for Jake Paul. But it isn’t. Mike is 58 years old and it’s an entertainment spectacle.”

    Boxing has no central authority to govern the sport, so each state commission can sanction bouts largely at its discretion.

    In 2018, Texas officials approved a pro fight between Jack Lucious, then 62, and Yail Eligio, a younger boxer whose age is not listed on BoxRec, the sport’s official registry. In the first round, 62-year-old Lucious lost by TKO.

    “I don’t know how they pull this off,” Al Low, the former chairman of the Michigan State Boxing Commission, said of Texas sanctioning the fight as a pro. “It would never have been allowed in Michigan.”

    Greg Sirb, who served as commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission for 33 years before retiring last year, said the two-minute rounds and 14-ounce gloves remain problematic.

    “I don’t understand how even a Texas guy says it’s a sanctioned fight,” he said.

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