Could Mike Tyson be the next opponent for YouTuber turned boxer Logan Paul? After retiring from boxing following a loss to Kevin McBride in 2005, Tyson stepped out of retirement for an exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020. The result was controversially scored as a split draw. As it stands now, it’s unclear when Tyson plans to get back into the ring for another fight, but boxing Logan Paul seems to be a good possibility.
On the latest episode of Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson, the legendary boxer was speaking with rapper Freddie Gibbs. The subject of course turned to boxing, and Gibbs brought up how Logan Paul and brother Jake Paul have been making names for themselves in the sport. Gibbs then asked Iron Mike straight up if he would be willing to actually fight one of the Paul brothers, and here’s what Tyson had to say.
“Yeah, hell yeah. That would be a lot of money.”
Of the two brothers, Tyson did suggest he’d rather fight Logan over Paul, due to the size difference between them. When Gibbs asked Tyson if he thinks Logan would accept the fight, Tyson theorized that “for $100 million bucks, they’d do anything. They don’t care about getting beat up.”
Big payday aside, Logan Paul has already spoken about how he thinks a potential fight against Mike Tyson would go. Feeling confident in his abilities, Paul suggested that he’d easily win a fight against Tyson, citing the older boxer’s age as a big reason why. It’s not clear if these comments made their way back to Tyson, but they could help fuel a potential fight and feud between the two.
“Someone mentioned [fighting] Mike Tyson, like how funny is it? One great at a time,” Logan said on his ImPaulsive podcast in June. “My lawyer mentioned it, and he’s like, ‘No, Tyson will rip your head off. You don’t stand a chance.’ I’m like, ‘Bro, I just went through all of this. You can’t tell me I can’t beat Mike Tyson.’ Bro, he’s old, old.”
Of course, Mike Tyson might also want to reconsider stepping back into the ring again based on what recently happened with one of his most high-profile opponents. Last month, Evander Holyfield stepped in for Oscar De La Hoya for a fight against Vitor Belfort, as De La Hoya had been hospitalized with COVID-19. It’s commendable that Holyfield took on the fight with little preparation, but he wound up losing by knockout in the first round.
Underestimating the Pauls is something that has also happened to other fighters at this point. While Logan Paul’s career is technically 0-1 as a pro boxer, he did go toe to toe with Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition boxing match. Many had anticipated that Paul would have been knocked out by Floyd, but he went the distance. A winner wasn’t declared because it was an exhibition match. There were some accusations that the bout might have been staged, but the fight still brought Logan a lot of credit for lasting in the ring with a boxing legend.
Logan’s brother Jake has been faring very well with his own boxing career. He is undefeated with a record of 4-0, recently defeating Tyron Woodley in his latest fight. There’s word of a possible rematch between the two but nothing is officially on the cards just yet. Time will tell if Mike Tyson ends up fighting either of these two brothers, but he’s probably right in his estimate that such a card would pull in big money.