Ivan Landjev Commentary:
Look at this boy. The whole story of poverty, darkness and violence gathered in his eyes. Look at the dance of aggression, so precise and uncompromising, as if some universal justice unfolds on Earth and says: "This is it. And it cannot be otherwise." Yes, under the artificial glitter of Las Vegas in the USA tonight, the most natural thing is happening. A young genius of pain creates his masterpiece at the expense of his opponent. His fists speak truths that words cannot repeat. It hits so hard, yet with such ease…
Two centuries and two Americas
The year is 1986, autumn, about that time - only not in the middle, but at the end of November. The boy is 20 years old. It has already knocked down champion Trevor Burbick once, and the match just started. Now a right down to the body, then a right uppercut misses, but a left hook to the head is spot on. Second knockdown. Burbick tries to get up, but his legs do not listen to him, the defeated body does not want to have anything to do with the tough spirit of the champion and does not allow him to stand up. Referee Mills Lane stops the count. Knockout. Mike Tyson is the new heavyweight world champion, the youngest in history.
Before he left the wrong world, his mentor Cus D'Amato managed to instill in his student that his spectacular success would be completely in order. So Mike is not surprised. Another thing makes him happy - he managed to take revenge for his beloved Muhammad Ali. Ali's last match in 1981 was with Berbick, and it was a sad, pitiful sight, one of those painful testaments to the irreversibility of time. And the greatest of all time sooner or later turns out to be the wrong time. No American state would grant him a boxing license after his depressing loss to Larry Holmes, so the fight took place in the Bahamas. American television stations do not buy the broadcasting rights. Ali is 39 and can't do anything, even against a mediocre boxer like Burbick. No place for the old dogs.
I remember a coach on the south side of Chicago saying one night while looking at the poster with his name on it for some game a quarter of a century ago: "Father Time is undefeated". Father Time is undefeated. Then he would lock the hall and walk slowly to the subway. The cortisone shots in his arms weren't helping him much anymore, and he couldn't keep his paws on the young boxers. But there was knowledge to impart and jokes to tell.
The year is 2005. Don't look around for the boy - the boy is gone. As our lives roll by like a bus train, Mike Tyson is stoked to experience several different lives at speed at the same time. At least two of them have already collided head-on. And the whole world watched as the Iron man lost the battle against his fiercest opponent - Success. Mike has cracked under his weight and is now the same age as Ali in his last, sad fight. Sometimes numbers contain more irony than words. Tyson is 39 and can't do anything, even against a mediocre boxer like Kevin McBride. After the loss, he gives a short interview in the ring: "I'm sorry to disappoint you. I don't have that ferocity. I am no longer an animal. I won't fight anymore. I will not disgrace the sport by losing to boxers of that level.
No place for the old dogs.
Life likes to tell us that we can get back what we lost. And while we try, he takes more and more from us. Finally there is no more left to take. We cannot steal anything from life. He of us can. That's one side.
But here's the other one: you're as young today as you'll ever be. Then? Why not accept the challenge? Is there a reason why the past days seem better to you than the present? There probably is, but it's not wise to ask. Was there a reason for 58-year-old Mike Tyson to agree to a match with 27-year-old YouTuber Jake Paul? There was, even more than one. I can think of 20 million reasons.
Mike Tyson broke his own promise from 2005 and fought Jake Paul on November 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. The 80s of the last century fought against the 20s of the current one. And the present won, but not because it's better than the past, nothing like that. It has only one advantage that cannot be neglected - that it exists. If you are surprised by the victory of the present, then the cheap charm of nostalgia has not escaped you this time either. Advice from a scalded person - don't deal with her anymore, she knows exactly what to say to you, you sink and then she doesn't come to the meeting. It's like that every time.
People watched this "match" in 2024 to see that boy from 1986, refusing to remember the defeated man from 2005.
They forgot that Father Time is invincible. We all wanted a break from the absurd present (Jake Paul), but the current Mike only had air for three minutes. No, err, for two, as the rounds were two minutes long and the gloves were 14 instead of 10 ounces (one for training, the other for racing). If it weren't for these "measures", even Texas wouldn't have licensed such a match. And Texas licenses all kinds of freak shows.
The good news and the bad news
Besides two centuries, two Americas also fought. Because Mike Tyson IS America, always has been. The American dream has various definitions, the most popular ones tread on blind materialism, but at its core it says something else, far more inspiring - it doesn't matter where you were born, what hole you came out of, you might even have grown up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the ghetto of the ghetto, you may not have had electricity, water or a toilet, all you have known as a child may have been violence, darkness and silence. Every outstretched hand may have hit you instead of caressed you. It can. Still, if you have something to offer this country, if you're really good at what you do and work hard, you have the chance to make it. And this country will thank you by giving you a fulfilling life and a better life for your children. The American Dream is in this "however" - with all the conventions and all the hypocrisy of the age. Whatever happened, and whatever happens - still there is this "nevertheless".
This is the America of the meritocracy. The never-ending good news.
The bad news is that Jake Paul is also America. The one that dictates that you can perfectly package the lack, put cellophane on the lack of talent, not be good at the thing itself, but be good at advertising it… and succeed again. And if you're persistent enough, you'll turn the ad into the thing itself. You can't lie to all the people all the time, but you can lie to some people for a little while. Jake Paul and Old Mike fooled a lot of people in 16 minutes on Netflix. I'm not saying they got along, I don't think so. I'm sure Mike did what he could, but an old man's body is a miserable home… and so on. This is not a country for old men. And the young man has the impressive business foresight (audacity) to hold boxing matches without boxers. How is it possible, why does he keep succeeding?
Because that's how America works - as a permanent advertising campaign for Chance. It is enough that there is even a fleeting, barely perceptible hint of a chance (for example, Grandpa Tyson getting into good fitness to at least aesthetically resemble his past self) - and the machine will start. We will buy this chance because we are all hope junkies.
Jake Paul fans (I still have a hard time believing they exist, but I'm just a clueless millennial born the exact year Mike became champion) hope the Jake Show continues. And it will continue. Iron Mike fans were hoping he would return from the 80s in 16 minutes. It didn't happen, because that can't be the reality, and everything is actually reasonable.
I hope the America of meritocracy beats the America of marketing from time to time. And sometimes the story is more important than the stories. But I don't know what the plan is. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, a wise man said years ago. It's time for him to retire again. Because while we hope, youth insists - and takes its own, the other's and everything in between. Youth insists that there is no room for old dogs.