Tyson gives a reminder of glory days before Paul bout

Agencies New York: The madness rolled through an anonymous breakfast bar in Arlington, just outside Dallas, soon after six o’clock on Tuesday morning. Sleepy diners gazed at a bank of television screens which had lit up with images of two contrasting men on the early morning NBC news. In front of them a suave anchorman promised that Friday night’s manufactured scrap in north Texas between “the 58-year-old boxing icon Iron Mike Tyson and the Problem Child, Jake Paul,” will transport us “back to the glory days of boxing.” As if we needed any more convincing the screen then filled with the scraggly bearded face of Paul, “the 27-year-old YouTube sensation”, who praised the owners of the Dallas Cowboys for sharing his vision of staging “the biggest fight in the history of boxing” at their AT&T Stadium just 10 miles down the road from where we sat drinking our lukewarm coffee. We did not hear the ghosts of Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali howling in agony.

Instead, if they had been forced to hear the blabbering inanity of the world in 2024, they might have laughed. Twelve hours later, at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, a 20-minute drive from Arlington, Tyson and Paul staged a public workout to kickstart this surreal fight week which will culminate in fisticuffs on Netflix. Tyson was said to be “ferocious” as he backed his cornerm a n against the ropes. The trainer wore a body protector which absorbed the blows while Tyson showed decent head movement as he threw some fast combinations. But it’s easy for a former world champion when no one is punching back. Tyson looked weary after that burst of activity and it’s hard to know how he will cope with 10 two-minute rounds against a man 31 years younger than him. Paul is a novice professional but Tyson looked sombre as he waited to be interviewed in the ring.

A black towel was draped around his bare shoulders as a young woman turned to the crowd. “Texas, you better get louder than that,” she hollered. Sweat poured down Tyson’s sad old face as he waited patiently. “Mr Mike Tyson, it is so different when you’re on your phone or watching it online, to witness it here,” the woman said enthusiastically as she praised his brief workout. “It is something spectacular that I don’t think any of us have ever seen."