Mike Tyson’s once-ferocious fighting career was already helter-skeltering towards its feeble conclusion when the video-sharing platform YouTube first flickered into life in February 2005.
Four months later, the so-called ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’, who had cut a swathe through the world’s best heavyweights towards the end of the 1980s, was crumpling in the corner under the less than concussive fists of Irishman Kevin McBride in Washington DC.
Tyson’s pitiful professional conclusion, which followed innumerable controversies and scandals that dogged his career both in and out of the ring, served to soften the memory of the impact of those crushing early wins, and question his hard-won reputation as one of the most brutal and unforgiving world champions of all time.
So it is hardly surprising that Tyson professes himself entirely unconcerned by criticism of his decision to end his 19-year hiatus from the ring and return at the age of 58 to face the YouTuber Jake Paul in Arlington , Texas on Friday night.