Tyson: Boxing Should Have YouTube Belts For The Jake Pauls Of The Sport

Mike Tyson doesn’t believe there’s too many belts in the sport. In fact, he thinks there should be a whole new set for the Influencers breathing new life into the sweet science.

YouTuber Jake Paul returned to the ring on Saturday night in the co-main event of the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. event, knocking out former NBA player Nate Robinson in the second round.

It was a brutal finish of an opponent that clearly didn’t have enough boxing experience, and a reminder that boxing is no joking matter even at the freakshow level. Robinson lay face down on the canvas unconscious for over a minute (watch the finish here). We hope he got paid well enough for the concussion.

“My career goal was to do exactly what I did,” Jake Paul said after the fight. “To have an undeniable victory and steal the show. And prove to the boxing world, who has doubted me for the past six months, that I’m a pro boxer and I’m here to stay.”

Now Paul is looking to move up from defeating YouTube celebrities / non-combat sports athletes and start concentrating on MMA fighters.

“When you put those 10-ounce gloves on me, I’m vicious, I can hit. I’m a real dog,” Paul said. “When these MMA fighters come into the ring, they’re gonna meet ‘The Problem Child.’ They’re gonna meet me. And I’m here to make millions of dollars and sell millions of pay-per-view and I’m gonna be one of the biggest stars. I think I might just be the new Floyd.”

He’s certainly got Floyd’s confidence, if not perhaps the skills to back it up. At this point Paul has proven he can take out an inexperienced fighter, but we have our doubts he could hang with any of the people he’s called out in MMA over the past couple of years: Ben Askren, Dillon Danis, and certainly not Conor McGregor, who Paul said was an ‘inevitable’ opponent.

“I think I just cemented myself as one of the biggest prizefighters, so someone’s gonna have to come with the bag or I might do my own promotion,” Paul said. “So we’ll see.”

If he wants to stretch the viability of his career as a boxing draw out, perhaps some of his less challenging options should come first? Paul also suggested avenging his brother’s loss to KSI. There’s also some beef with an influencer named Austin McBroom. And if he really wants to go full snake eating its own tail, he’s even said he’d whup his brother?

It’s all kind of greasy, but there’s clearly interest and money to be made. And according to Mike Tyson, the sport of boxing should thank guys like Logan Paul for reconnecting the average fan with a formerly ‘dying sport.’

“Listen: my ego says so many things, but the reality is they help boxers so much,” Tyson said at his event’s post-fight press conference. “Boxers owe these guys, these YouTube boxers, some kind of respect. They should give them some belts because these guys make boxing alive. Boxing was completely a dying sport. The UFC was kicking our butts. And now we got the YouTube boxers? Boxers with 25 million views? Boxing is coming back … thanks to the YouTube boxers.”