Rosie Perez has been a boxing fan all her life. However, she kept her love for the sport a secret because so many people think it is ‘too barbaric’. But a few years ago she started tweeting comments while watching fights.

Fast forward to today. Nicknamed “The First Lady of Boxing,” Perez is one of the official commentators for the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul bout that takes place Friday night in Dallas and will be broadcast live on Netflix.

“It will be an interesting match,” Perez told me on Thursday. “Jake Paul is in his late twenties and Mike Tyson is 58. Three decades. It’s crazy.”

Like many, Perez was not happy when Paul started his career. “Everyone hated him when he first started boxing, including myself,” she said. “But it was less about hate, it was more about concern. This is a real sport. You don’t box. People can get hurt. People have lost their lives in the ring, so that’s why I was against him. But he just kept going. He just kept going.”

Perez doesn’t make predictions about who will win because she believes everyone has an equal chance. “Mike looks the way he looks now, everyone says it’s a 50/50 chance,” she says. “Where before they said, ‘Jake Paul has this in the bag because he’s younger and he has knockout power.’ He knocked out about five of his opponents, but not all of them were Mike Tyson.”

This following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

How concerned are you about Mike or Jake getting seriously injured?

I always worry in every boxing match because one punch can change a fight. Yes, you can knock someone out unexpectedly. So I’m worried. Not only am I worried about Tyson, I’m worried about Jake Paul, but I’m more worried about Tyson because of his age.

What are some of your favorite boxing movies?

“The Harder They Fall” with Humphrey Bogart because it was the first boxing movie I saw that was about boxing, and it broke my heart because I didn’t know how dirty it was, and how the crowds at the time just took advantage of people. Then there is the first “Rocky” and the top of the line is “Raging Bull.” What De Niro did with that character, how he understood the fighting game, it was insane. The cinematography and direction by Martin Scorsese were insane. I watched the movie for the first time and I knew what the outcome was because I knew the fight, but I was still on the edge of my seat.

Jake Paul is a big supporter of Donald Trump. I wanted to hear your reaction to that – or do you think that sports and politics should not go together?

When I’m at a boxing match, I never talk about politics. Donald Trump shows up at UFC fights, and he showed up at the boxing matches, and he was boxing before he destroyed Atlantic City. But what I’ve learned over the years, because I’m very, very outspoken, is that when I’m at a boxing match, I don’t talk about it. That said, I hate to give (Trump) credit. It’s a genius move for Trump to insert himself into the sports world because it’s a tribal thing, right? If you think about it, we have all these different nationalities. When you’re at a sporting event, everyone is on the same tribe. Even if you’re rooting for the other team, you’re all there for the same reason. And that’s a huge access to the American population. As for Jake Paul, my view of him as a businessman changed because he supported women’s boxing. Women’s boxing has been ignored for so long. They have never been paid the same as men. They still get punched in the face, just like men. They still get eliminated just like men, but they don’t get the same money. If you’re going to punch me in the face, you better pay me the same amount you pay this guy right here. They kept saying, ‘Nobody wants to see women’s boxing. Nobody likes women fighting.” The first to prove him wrong was Dana White and the second to prove him wrong was Jake Paul. He played a match with Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. He said, “I’m going to sell out Madison Square Garden and I’m going to get these women paid.” And he did. After the fight, Amanda said she could finally afford to buy a house.

I know you don’t like to combine sports and politics, but I have to ask you how you feel after the elections?

There were so many Democrats who were devastated, and they kept asking me, “Why aren’t you devastated? I said, ‘I’m not devastated. I’m just worried. I worry about the country.” I said, ‘I’ve been telling you from day one, even though I’ve been campaigning for her – because I thought, we have to do everything, all hands on deck, to make sure she wins more so he doesn’t come back again. gets into trouble. office – but from day one I kept telling the campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And guess what? It bit us in the ass, and that’s just a tough pill to swallow. But we gotta take our medicine and get off the damn canvas and start training again and keep the fight going. It’s like a pity party they all had. I’m like, ‘What the hell is wrong with it, y’all? We’ve been here before. We have lost before.” You cry one night and then get over it. You are the first person I say this to because no one wanted me to get that message out. I kept telling everyone, “I live in the real world.” I know the far right accuses me of being elitist because I’m in the entertainment business, and I immediately clap back at them. I said, ‘Listen, you motherfuckers, I come from abject poverty. I am the American dream. I’m busting my ass. I am constantly rejected because of my skin color, my nationality and my ethnicity. I fight for my career every day, so fuck off.” And believe it or not, I’m more moderate than you think because I live in the real world. But there are so many Republicans who aren’t Trumpers, and we need to stop hate them. We need to start listening to them. We need to start listening to what they’re trying to tell us about what they want from a government.

Like you said, Trump is going to fight. If he showed up at the Tyson vs. Paul match, would you shake his hand?

No, but I wouldn’t be rude to him because he’s going to be our next president. I wouldn’t want to show him any disrespect, but I don’t know if I could shake that man’s hand in good faith. But like I said, boxing and politics shouldn’t mix. I think he’ll probably show up, because it would be a very smart move for good reason if he does.