Former heavyweight king Mike Tyson recently posted a somewhat worrying tweet in which he stated he would “rather die in the ring. I don’t want to die in a hospital bedroom.” This comes less than a month before Tyson, at the advanced age of 58, will fight the much younger Jake Paul, the controversial fight set for November 15th.
Tyson, who had to pull out of the earlier July date with Paul due to an ulcer flare-up, sure has got people concerned ahead of the fight, and that was before he said what he said about wanting to die in the ring.
“If I win, I’ll be immortal. If I do it bad, I don’t want to die in a hospital bedroom, I want to die in the ring,” Tyson wrote in full.
Tyson, an emotional person, very possibly means what he said, too. Tyson shouldn’t be attempting to fight at his age, so say so many people who are critical of the November 15th fight. While Tyson’s supporters, the people who feel he can win if he lands a huge punch early on, this before his seemingly inevitable fade due to fatigue, admit they dread the sight of YouTuber Paul laying out their hero.
Other people still are skeptical that the fight will be on that level, thinking it will be a “prearranged” affair, a scripted exhibition bout. Who knows for sure? But Tyson’s recent words make it sound like he takes the fight very seriously.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali’s former manager, Gene Kilroy, visited Tyson’s training camp this week and said he was relieved by what he saw.
“This is the strongest I’ve ever seen you, the strongest I’ve ever seen you, and I’ve known you since you were 13 years old,” Kilroy said to Tyson. “I think this is so [amazing], this impressed the s**t out of me. Nothing impresses me. You know what, I’m going to tell you the truth, I don’t lie. I was worried about him traveling here, traveling there; I can sleep now at night. This is great.”
But will the fight between Tyson and Paul come close to being great?
