In 1906, a man named Primo Carnera was born in the northeasternmost corner of Italy. Carnera was absolutely enormous for his age: He stood 6 foot 6 and weighed 275 pounds. At the time, the average height in Italy was just 5 foot 5. So naturally, Primo became a prizefighter.
The media loved him! One press release detailed his giant-sized diet: “For breakfast, Primo has a quarter of orange juice, two quarts of [whole] milk, 19 pieces of toast, 14 eggs, a loaf of bread and half a pound of Virginia ham.”
The Italian giant had a very successful career: He won 88 fights and was briefly the heavyweight champion of the world!
The only trouble was that he couldn’t actually fight.
He was a mob-controlled fighter. And since he looked the part, his fights were easy to fix.
But Primo Carnera wasn’t the first fighter to throw a fight. Nor was he the last. Suspicions still abound that Sonny Liston took a dive in his second fight with Muhammad Ali in 1965 when the tough-as-nails Liston was wobbled and rocked by a soft-looking shot in the first round.
It happened again in the 1990s when heavyweight contender Ray Mercer was accused of attempting to bribe his opponent, Jesse Ferguson, with $100,000.
After Primo was exposed, he became a professional wrestler and an actor, starring in numerous films in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It’s an eerily similar career trajectory to Mike Tyson, who joined the WWE for a year and cameoed in those “Hangover” movies during his various professional lulls.
This Friday, Iron Mike Tyson will return to the ring — at age 58! — to fight 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer (10-1 record) Jake Paul. Netflix will stream the bout live, and it is expected to draw record viewership.
But is the fight on the level?
It’s a strange fight to assess because everything about it is so atypical — and not just the 31-year age gap. Instead of three-minute rounds, the rounds will only be two minutes. It’s unclear how comprehensively the Texas Boxing Commission will drug test.
In 2000, Mike Tyson terrified Polish fighter Andrew Golota, literally chasing him out of the ring. But the fight was later ruled a no contest because Tyson tested positive for marijuana.
But he’s still smoking pot. In fact, he’s now a wealthy marijuana entrepreneur. Another one of his investment projects involves hormone replacement therapy for men.
Normally, by age 58, an athlete’s strength, speed, coordination, and reaction time have deteriorated so sharply that they can’t even compete on a semi-pro level. But if Tyson is juiced to the gills with testosterone-adjacent supplements, it’s difficult to know what to expect.
There are also “pharmaceutical rumors” about his much younger opponent, Jake Paul, who weighed 183.6 when cruiserweight prospect Tommy Fury beat him in 2023. For the Tyson fight on Friday, he’s expected to weigh 225. Even for young athletes, 40-pound weight gains within such short periods are unusual.
There’s also the fact that Jake Paul isn’t a good fighter. I’m not trying to knock the kid: It took courage and moxie for him to enter the sport in 2018. He’s a natural athlete with legitimate punching power.
But there’s a world of difference between someone like Paul, who entered boxing in his 20s after being a YouTube celebrity, and someone like Tyson who was training daily with the legendary Cus D’Amato at age 13. Paul has had a few highlight-reel moments against semi-retired MMA fighters, and good for him.
Nothing wrong with a young fighter honing his craft against lesser competition!
But it doesn’t compare to Mike Tyson winning the world title at age 20 by annihilating ex-champ Trevor Berbick, whacking him from ring post to ring post. It’s the difference between a state fair tough man winner and prizefighting at its highest levels. Yes, the sport is brutal and unforgiving, but there’s also an artistry to it. It’s called the “sweet science” for a reason.
Make no mistake, Mike Tyson is still a master artist. He’s still an all-time great.
Jake Paul is scribbling with crayons.
On their merits, if Tyson has ANYTHING left, he will flatten Paul. It shouldn’t go more than a couple of rounds, two minutes or not. Mike Tyson on Testosterone Replacement Therapy is probably less like a guy pushing 60 and more like an athlete in his 40s.
If the fix is in, it’s almost certainly for Tyson to take the dive. That’s how it’s always been in boxing: The old lion makes way for the younger (and more marketable) lion. Some boxing insiders suspect as much. After all, Paul has exponentially more to lose: If Tyson loses, he’s still Mike Tyson, but if Paul loses, he’s done.
He’d be exposed as a fraud — just like Primo Carnera.