Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul labeled a “joke” as rules allegedly enforce headgear

Brad Norton
Jake Paul Mike Tyson

Rules of the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight will allegedly have both competitors wearing headgear and bigger than usual 18oz gloves, leaving many labeling the boxing contest as a “joke.”

After a handful of quick knockouts over relatively unknown boxers in recent months, Paul is circling back to the celeb route with arguably the biggest name in boxing history. Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson was locked in last week, much to the dismay of fellow fighters, fight fans, and of course, Paul’s longtime rival KSI.

The long-retired veteran will be 58 by the time of the event on July 20. Naturally, many have been concerned over the 31-year age gap between them. Now, heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora is the latest to speak up, claiming he’s heard of various rules in place for the event.

Seemingly as a way to prevent long-term damage and safeguard from a devastating knockout, Chisora claims Paul vs Tyson will go down with both wearing headgear along with much bigger gloves.

Speaking on the recently announced fight, Chisora said the following: “I know for a fact they are using 18oz gloves and headguards. So we’re watching a sparring match. It’s a f***ing joke. You think I’m paying to watch that?”

These comments quickly gained traction across social media, with many taking his words as gospel right away. As you can imagine, the response was far from positive.

“Might as well cancel the event,” one Twitter user said after seeing the news. “If that’s true, not really interested,” another chimed in. “Just getting worse the more we find out about this.”

In traditional combat sports contests, eight or 10oz gloves are often the norm. With rumors of 18oz gloves being used, the idea being to protect the fighters from sustaining too much damage with all the extra padding, prospective viewers clearly aren’t too thrilled.

However, while many ran with Chisora’s words without blinking, it’s worth taking the comments with a heaping serve of salt. Until confirmed by the fighters themselves, the event hosts in Netflix, or the local commission, nothing is yet concrete.

In fact, the most acclaimed combat sports journalist, Ariel Helwani, even went on record disputing some of the claims, stating there will be no headgear at the very least. So for now, we’ll just have to wait and see how things pan out.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com