Mike Tyson and Jake Paul collide inside the boxing ring on July 20, and coach Rafael Cordeiro is super excited to get the boxing legend ready for the task.
Cordeiro, who made his name in the MMA world as a Muay Thai coach at Chute Boxe before opening Kings MMA in California, said Paul is in for a shock at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“This fight won’t be a massacre, it’s going to be a very technical match, because we have a kid on the other side that can box and isn’t afraid,” Cordeiro said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “Mike has such heavy hands, and it will be impossible not to touch Jake. Jake will feel Mike’s hands, there’s no other way, and that’s when we’ll have an idea on how the fight will go. It’s going to be interesting to see.”
Paul holds a 9-1 record as a professional boxer with six knockout wins. Even though Tyson will be 58 by the time he enters the ring, Cordeiro is confident Paul will be in “panic” when hands start to land.
“Panic – he will panic,” Cordeiro laughed. “That’s the goal. Our goal is to keep Jake in panic the entire fight. Or for as long as he can take it.”
Cordeiro praises Paul’s boxing career, though, saying “this kid stopped being a YouTuber a long time ago” to become a serious boxer, and Paul deserves respect from the combat sports community.
“He’s doing great fights against great champions, facing good opponents and building a relative good career, not only financially speaking, but in terms of entertaining,” Cordeiro said. “And on the other side we have [Tyson], who carries many generations with him.”
According to Cordeiro, Tyson vs. Paul is an official boxing match. Tyson’s latest boxing bout, a clash with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, was declared an exhibition by the California State Athletic Commission. However, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) told MMA Fighting that no decision has been made on the July 20 since “we have not received any proposed cards and thus have no details about what they are planning. All bouts are subject to review and approval by TDLR.”
“Unlike the first camp, [Tyson] won’t be coming off 15 years away [from the ring],” Cordeiro said. “He’s been training ever since, and that makes all the difference. It’s going to be good. We still got four more months for the fight, so he will be ready.”
“There’s the age difference, and there’s the factor that [Paul] is competing more often, but he’s facing someone with enormous experience,” he continued. “Mike doesn’t train for some time, and when he returns, the explosiveness, the movement, it’s like he never stopped. More than who hits the hardest, it’s about the technique. Jake has good boxing. You can’t say otherwise. He’s winning the fights, and his loss is a split decision to a legit boxer, not a MMA champion, and that shows his kid knows how to box.”
Tyson and Cordeiro shared a video days after the bout was announced showing the boxing legend hitting pads on his first day of camp, and Cordeiro said Tyson is in great shape. He added a 2023 video that showed Tyson using crutches to walk should raise no red flags.
“He has a lot of back pain, ever since he was a kid,” Cordeiro said. “We’re always taking care of his back in training. He moves a lot to the side, and that takes a toll. And since he travels a lot, he was using that to help him posture up after being on flights for long hours.”
