Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Mike Tyson concedes the role of villain to young foe in fight with Jake Paul
ARLINGTON, Texas | Friendship is at the heart of how a fight came together between 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and much younger YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
Friction helped build the hype for a bout that is testing the formula for how boxing is delivered to the masses, a first-ever combat sports offering from the streaming platform Netflix rather than pay-per-view or traditional cable.
“I think they’re beloved fans of Mike Tyson,” Paul said, trying to explain the boisterous boos that have greeted him when the two have appeared together in recent months to hype the event.
“And I’m the new kid on the block, the disrupter, loud mouth, polarizing figure,” Paul said. “And I’ve built my career as the heel. Naturally people want to root against me, and that’s great for the sport of boxing.”
Tyson’s first sanctioned professional fight in almost 20 years is set for Friday night at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. A crowd of at least 60,000 is expected while Netflix offers the bout at no additional cost to more than 280 million subscribers globally.
The 27-year-old Paul is relatively new to the sport, the one-time social media influencer bringing a 10-1 record with seven knockouts mostly against mixed martial artists and journeymen boxers.
Tyson was 50-6 with 44 knockouts when he retired after losing to Kevin McBride in 2005, saying he didn’t have anything left to give the sport. He last fought in an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. with no fans during the pandemic in 2020.
A fight originally scheduled for July 20 was postponed when Tyson had to be treated for a stomach ulcer after falling ill on a flight.
Tyson said in a documentary chronicling the preparations for the fight that he lost 26 pounds in the process of recovering.
Promoter Nakisa Bidarian, who co-founded Most Valuable Promotions with Paul, said Tyson was cleared medically weeks ago. Bidarian sidestepped a question of how concerned he was for Tyson’s health once he steps in the ring.
“I’m nervous for both men,” Bidarian said. “The reality is Jake’s never been hit by someone like Mike Tyson flush on the chin. And Mike hasn’t fought someone like Jake for a very long time. That’s what makes this interesting.”
Paul said he had a vision for the fight about two years ago and shared it with Tyson because he thought the Hall of Famer would understand — and be interested. It took about that long for the bout to come together.
Tyson appeared agitated at both hype events with fans in the Dallas area, first in the weeks before the originally scheduled fight and again at a news conference two nights before the bout.
He was more reflective in a smaller setting with reporters, suggesting he wasn’t the same foul-mouthed, scowling fighter from his prime.
“I’ve been through so many ups and downs since my last fight with Kevin McBride,” Tyson said. “I’ve been in rehab. I’ve been in prison, been locked up. Never in a million years did I believe I’d be doing this.”
According to reports, Paul will get $40 million for the fight, a number he mentioned at another news conference in New York in August.
Tyson, who had two stints in prison over convictions in the 1990s for rape and assault and declared bankruptcy 21 years ago, will get $20 million. Tyson has said he isn’t doing the fight for money.
“That old Mike Tyson … he doesn’t have no more purpose in my life. He just doesn’t exist,” Tyson said. “I’m having a good time in my life. I don’t have much time left, so I’m having the best time of my life.”
Several states wouldn’t sanction the bout. Texas agreed to a fight that was eight rounds instead of 10 or 12, with two-minute rounds instead of three, and heavier gloves designed to lessen the power of punches.
Paul has faced persistent questions about why he would fight someone so much older, regardless of Tyson’s pedigree. His answers have been consistent.
“I say talk to Mike and tell Mike that,” Paul said. “He’s the one that wanted it to be a pro fight and me, as a young person in this sport, is not going to (pass) up the opportunity to fight the GOAT of boxing. It’s like Ja Morant turning down a 1-v-1 against LeBron. It’s not going to happen.”
There is a high-profile championship fight on the card — the co-main event of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano.
Paul said he wanted to give the women a spotlight after their slugfest at sold-out Madison Square Garden in 2022. It was the first time women headlined a boxing event at the famous venue.
Taylor won a split decision that many questioned. Bidarian and Paul say the rematch for the undisputed super lightweight title will be the most lucrative women’s sporting event in history.
“A lot of people said the real main event is Taylor-Serrano,” Bidarian said. “I’m OK if you feel that way. Jake has said he’s more excited about that fight than his own fight. But we wanted to ensure the most eyeballs got to see that fight. To be quite honest with ourselves, Paul-Tyson draws a bigger audience.”
Jon Jones’ legacy as greatest fighter in
UFC history clouded
NEW YORK | UFC runs a contender for card-of-the-year each November at Madison Square Garden where the main event bouts often stand as a referendum on the company’s endless debate:
Who’s the “Greatest of All-Time” in UFC?
Conor McGregor, Georges St-Pierre and Daniel Cormier have all choked, clinched, counterpunched inside the fighting cage at MSG.
All could stake a claim at some point as the best mixed martial arts fighter to headline in New York.
The true GOAT just might be on-deck when the star-crossed Jon Jones makes his anticipated debut at the Garden for his heavyweight title fight on Saturday night at UFC 309.
“It’s all a huge honor to have your face on the billboards of Times Square,” Jones said.
It’s a greater one to have a hand raised in victory.
Jones is set to defend his title — a year after the fight was postponed when he suffered a torn pectoral tendon during training — against two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
Rehab is over, a year of hype has reached its crescendo, and the fighters are ready to throw down.
“Everyone cares about this fight, it feels like,” Jones said.
The 37-year-old Jones hasn’t fought since he ended a three-year sabbatical and choked out Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023. Miocic, 42, last fought when he dropped the belt to Francis Ngannou at UFC 280 in March 2021.
Jones stirs a crowd like few fighters outside of McGregor can wherever he travels. After a string of undercard fighters came-and-went at a midtown Manhattan hotel conference room, most MMA media instantly stood and crowded the stage with their smartphones for snapshots when Jones took the microphone. His UFC belt resting on the table, Jones wasn’t quite ready for a fashion shoot; he briefly left in his black short-sleeve shirt to find a jacket.
(“It’s a little chilly in here.”)
Jones has cooled on the idea of fighting his next challenger, should he defeat Miocic. British fighter Tom Aspinall has held down the division as interim heavyweight champion — a title necessitated by Jones’ lengthy absence — and has been chirping for months about a unification bout.
Likely trying to troll the overzealous Aspinall, Jones says he has no interest in that fight.
“What’s in it for me?” Jones said.
Except for one profane shot as Aspinall, Jones was eloquent and expressive as he discussed his legacy, impeccable manners worthy of a man raised by a pastor and a nurse that belies a personal life dogged by demons that have marred his reputation and career.
His list of offenses stretches beyond his number of title fights, a docket that includes doping suspensions, arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery domestic violence, arrested for aggravated DWI, and a hit-and-run incident top the list of legal and code-of-conduct violations.
His second win against Cormier, his long-time foil, was overturned in 2017 to a no-contest after Jones tested positive for the steroid Turinabo. Cormier, a former two-division champion who now calls fights for ESPN, said Jones’ repeated offenses should factor in the “GOAT” debate.
“This is his big week and he should be praised and applauded,” Cormier said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But for me, it’s just hard. When I was on the outside and on the other end of all those issues, that’s where the problem comes. I’m not jealous of Jon Jones. I really don’t care. It’s hard for me to say somebody is the greatest at anything of all-time when you have so many of those negative things attached to your name, especially in fighting. You can’t test positive for steroids in fighting, so that makes it hard.”
Jones talked in loose terms about living with regret but otherwise dismissed his detractors by quoting scripture, and saying: “I’m very aware that the man that I am today has turned out to be a pretty solid human being.”
Try and throw out his rap sheet — though its fastened to his legacy as much as the belt around his waist — and Jones boasts career achievements that make him a no-brainer as perhaps MMA’s greatest ever.
At 23, he was the youngest champion in UFC history when he beat Maurício Rua for the light heavyweight crown. His lone professional defeat came in 2009 on a disputed DQ for illegal elbows. Jones holds light heavyweight division records for most title defenses, most wins, and longest win streak before he vacated his belt. He then won his heavyweight debut against Gane.
The loudest cheerleader among those who think Jones is the best just might be the champ himself.
“If I’ve gotten this close to be considered in that realm of conversation, I might as well embrace it,” Jones said. “I might as well advocate for myself because reaching this level just doesn’t come often. What I’ve done is a really special thing.”
Jones has teased retirement should he beat Miocic — the challenger will all-but call it a career with a loss — but has also called for a fight against light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
“Pereira’s worth risking it for me,” Jones said. “I’m looking for the legacy stuff.”
Jones can only pad his GOAT credentials should he beat Miocic and send the firefighter back to Ohio a title-fight loser.
Even his fiercest rival can’t deny Jones’ MMA greatness.
“I’ve never fought anybody better than Jon Jones,” Cormier said.
McIlroy tied for lead at World Tour Championship
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | Rory McIlroy was already an overwhelming favorite to win the European tour’s season-long Race to Dubai title.
He made his chances even better on Thursday.
McIlroy shot 5-under 67 and was tied for the lead with Tyrrell Hatton after the first round of the season-ending World Tour Championship.
A top-10 finish will guarantee McIlroy wins the year-long points race — formerly known as the Order of Merit — for the sixth time, tying with the late Seve Ballesteros and moving two behind Colin Montgomerie’s record haul.
Thriston Lawrence, the South African who is second in the Race to Dubai standings behind McIlroy, is the only player who can catch the Northern Irishman and opened with a 73, leaving him six strokes behind his rival already.
“I am under no illusions that that was probably Thriston’s worst day,” McIlroy said.
Lawrence has to win — nothing less is good enough — and then needs McIlroy to finish tied for 11th or lower.
Paul Waring, the winner in Abu Dhabi last week in the first event of the end-of-season playoffs, was alone in third place after a 68 and American golfer Billy Horschel was in a seven-way tie for fourth place, one stroke further back.
The No. 3-ranked McIlroy made six birdies, the highlight coming on the par-3 17th when he rolled in a 50-footer to join Hatton in the lead.
The par-5 last hole offered a good chance for McIlroy to take the outright lead, especially after he split the fairway with his drive. He leaked his approach right, failed to find the green with his third shot and narrowly missed his birdie attempt.
McIlroy was playing alongside Lawrence in the final group and said he was thinking of more than what the South African was doing.
“I want to go on from here and win the golf tournament,” McIlroy said. “I have opened with a really good score but I need to go out and play similarly over these next three days.”
Hatton, who plays on the LIV Golf circuit, finished two shots back in second place last week after a closing 64 and carried that form to Dubai, even though he didn’t feel too comfortable around the Earth Course.
“To be honest, I feel like the score was better than it felt,” the No. 18-ranked Hatton said. “I felt I was tinkering over most tee shots and at times, I felt like my misses were bigger than perhaps they have been over the last month or so.”
New Jersey may
ban ‘prop’ bets on
college athletes
TRENTON, N.J. | After an unexpected loss in which he threw four interceptions in September, Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne heard from bettors angry that his subpar statistics lost bets for them. Some contacted him over the Venmo cash transfer app, asking him to refund their losses.
In March, North Carolina basketball player Armando Bacot said he got over 100 direct messages on social media from angry gamblers when he did not make enough rebounds for their bets to win.
Now the state whose U.S. Supreme Court victory led to an explosion of legal sports betting across America is considering banning such bets involving the statistical performance of college athletes.
New Jersey argues that student athletes are more accessible and thus more vulnerable to pressure and harassment than professional players, given that they eat in the same dining halls, live in the same dorms and attend classes with many other students.
“Not all of what has come from the legalization of sports betting has been positive,” said state Sen. Kristin Corrado.
A bill before the state Legislature would ban so-called proposition bets, commonly known as “props,” on what a particular athlete does or doesn’t do in a game. That can include how many touchdowns a quarterback throws, how many yards a running back accumulates, or how many rebounds a basketball player collects.
Austin Mayo, assistant director of government relations for the NCAA, said 1 in 3 players in sports that are heavily bet on have reported receiving harassment from gamblers.
The association wants such bets prohibited nationwide. If it passes the bill, New Jersey would join 13 other states that ban college prop bets, according to the American Gaming Association: Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, Louisiana, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
But Bill Pascrell III, a lobbyist for numerous gambling and sports-betting companies, said there has not been a demonstrable level of serious harm from college prop bets, which he said constitute 2% to 4% of the legal sports betting industry.
“When we ban any type of bet, particularly those that had been legalized, we’re pushing the bettor to the black market,” he said.
New Jersey allows betting on college games but prohibits it on teams from New Jersey or on games from out-of-state teams that are physically played in New Jersey.
Pascrell said that the recent tournament success of New Jersey colleges Seton Hall and St. Peter’s were bet on, either with illegal offshore internet sites, or legally by gamblers traveling to other states where it is permitted.
The bill was approved and released from an Assembly committee Thursday. It still must be approved by both full chambers of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy to become law.
New Jersey’s lawsuit challenging a ban on legal sports betting in all but four U.S. states led to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowing any state in the nation to offer it; 38 currently do, and Missouri will soon become the 39th.
—From AP reports
