News

Mike Tyson, Jake Paul Fight Scheduled For Friday

Published

5 hours ago

November 15, 2024

Nearly 40 years after his professional debut, and 19 years after retiring, 58-year-old Mike Tyson will return to the ring on Friday in a Netflix-backed bout that has stirred widespread condemnation in the boxing world.

Tyson, who dominated the heavyweight division in the late 1980s, will lace up the gloves once more to face YouTuber Jake Paul, 27, in an officially sanctioned fight at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas.

The bout, set for eight two-minute rounds, was initially scheduled for July but was postponed in May when Tyson required medical treatment after vomiting blood on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles due to a bleeding ulcer.

The incident has fuelled criticism of Friday’s fight, with many condemning it as a macabre spectacle that poses undue risk for Tyson, who last appeared in a professional ring in 2005, ending in a technical knockout loss after quitting on his stool against Irish journeyman Kevin McBride.

‘It Shouldn’t Be Happening’

“Mike Tyson retired from boxing 20 years ago and was already worn out,” British promoter Eddie Hearn said this week.

“If anyone thinks Mike Tyson should be in a ring at this age, you either have absolutely no concern for him, or you’re being reckless. This shouldn’t be happening.”

Hearn’s fellow promoter, Frank Warren, echoed the sentiment.

“Mike Tyson is 58 years of age and he shouldn’t be fighting,” Warren said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Comparing the fight to a roadside accident, Warren added, “You’re on the motorway, and everyone’s slowing down just to look at a crash — that’s what this is.”

Tyson, reportedly earning around $20 million for the bout, has dismissed concerns for his wellbeing, claiming critics are motivated by jealousy.

“I’m beautiful, that’s all I can say,” he responded earlier this year. “Those who criticise wish they were in my place. No one else can do this.”

At an open workout in Texas this week, Tyson declared that his intense training camp had convinced him he was tougher than he’d realised.

“When I agreed to this fight, I thought, ‘What was I thinking?’ But I completed the process. The fight is the celebration. All the hard work is done.”

At Wednesday’s press conference in Texas, a focused Tyson avoided pre-fight hype, saying simply, “I’m just ready to fight.”

Injury Fears

A global audience on Netflix and thousands in AT&T Stadium will be watching on Friday to see if Tyson’s efforts pay off.

Paul, who was born six months before Tyson famously bit off a portion of Evander Holyfield’s ear in their 1997 rematch, first gained fame on YouTube before turning to boxing.

Since his first bout against a fellow YouTuber in 2018, Paul has fought various opponents, including a basketball player, MMA fighters, and other professional boxers. In 11 matches, he has won 10 (seven by knockout) and lost one.

“I feel really good, sharp, powerful, and explosive. It’s going to be a short night for Mike,” Paul said at Tuesday’s open workout, where he sported a rooster-shaped headdress.

It’s clear that a prime, 1980s Tyson would likely have disposed of Paul within minutes. But does Tyson still retain any trace of the power and skill that made him the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986, at age 20?

Veteran promoter Bob Arum, 92, is blunt.

“The answer is no,” Arum told SecondsOut.com last month.

“A 58-year-old man, no matter how good or athletic they were, can’t compete at that level anymore.”

“I hope Mike doesn’t get hurt, but I really give him almost no chance.”

AFP

News

Bury the thought, it’s not your destiny to be president – Wike’s Aide carpets Atiku

Published

20 minutes ago

November 15, 2024

Naijablitznews

Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Lere Olayinka, has told former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to jettison his ambition to govern the country in 2027, saying the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party PDP presidential candidate was not destined to rule the country.

Olayinka in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said “The PDP presidential ticket will no longer be available to be wasted by serial betrayals of the party, who are obviously suffering the consequences of their past sins against the party and its members”.

Insisting that Atiku should perish the thought of contesting the 2027 presidential election as candidate of the PDP, Olayinka said “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and those egging him on for their benefits should let the PDP breathe.”

FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike had said during a live media parley in his office in Abuja on Wednesday that there would be no chance for Atiku, who was the 2023 Presidential candidate of the PDP to secure the party’s ticket in 2027.

Reacting through his Media Aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku had alluded to his defeat of Wike to pick the 2023 PDP presidential ticket as well as the former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, to emerge as the candidate in 2019.

However, in a statement yesterday, Olayinka, said Atiku’s “celebration of his narrow and fraudulent defeat of Wike in the 2022 PDP primary was funny and childish”, adding that “it is like Arsenal fans jumping to the rooftops to celebrate the club’s narrow defeat of Super Falcons.”

He said: “That Atiku is venerating himself for contesting PDP ticket with Wike and Tambuwal, people who were just a little above 25 as of 1993, when he contested the Social Democratic Party SDP presidential primary and came third, is the more reason he needs to go home and rest and stop acting like the proverbial cock that failed to realize that it is now elderly.”

Describing Atiku as someone not destined to be president of Nigeria, Olayinka said; “It is obvious that he (Atiku) is paying the price of betraying the PDP in 2003, 2007 and 2014. If not, the same presidency he has contested twice and lost, could have been his to just pick if he had avoided being inordinately ambitious while he was Vice President.”

“It was this desperation that made him to contest for president as candidate of Action Congress in 2007, while still serving as Vice President, elected under the platform of the PDP. A serving Vice President joining others to form another party and contesting as candidate of the new party against his own party.

That’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar!

“Most importantly, Atiku’s conscience will continue to prick him on his roles in Lagos in 2023, and I am sure that even his apology to PDP members in 2018 can never remove from his body, that garment of betrayal.
“Therefore, it is again being sounded to his ears and those of the people lying to him that he is the only one who can win the presidency for the PDP that the ticket of the party will not be for someone like him, who will lose election and run to Dubai, only to come back two years to another election”, Olayinka added

CityNews

News

Confusion As ‘Baltasar Engonga’ was cornered and fl0gged by husbands of the women he sl3eps with

Published

27 minutes ago

November 15, 2024

Naijablitznews

A man dubbed Zimbabwe’s own “Baltasar” faced violent retribution from a group of enraged husbands after being accused of having affairs with their wives.

In a video shared by Crimewatch Zimbabwe on X (formerly Twitter), several men from the Mapostori sect were seen beating the man, holding him down while others struck him with what appeared to be rubber sticks.

The video, recorded by a witness and later posted on social media, shows the men interrogating him. At one point, one of the attackers questions, “How many women have you slept with, and why did you do it?” Reports indicate that the man allegedly engaged in these relationships after some women claimed their husbands were not satisfying them.

Social media reactions were swift, with users tagging the police to intervene and arrest the men involved in the assault. Many viewers expressed shock, noting a recent rise in arrests related to assaults on cheating partners and their spouses.