When Mike Tyson returns to the ring this summer for his first fight in nearly four years, Le’Veon Bell isn’t expecting things to go well for the one-time “Baddest Man on the Planet.”
The former Steelers running back, who has dabbled in boxing since leaving the NFL, thinks that Tyson’s fight against Jake Paul is going to end with Tyson getting knocked out. Bell gave his opinion on social media after Robert Griffin III shared a video that showed the 57-year-old Tyson sparring.
By the time the fight takes place on July 20, Tyson will be 58 and Bell is pretty confident that Tyson’s old age will work against him in a match against an opponent who is more than 30 years younger than him.
Bell’s prediction for the fight is pretty simple: He thinks Tyson might look sharp for the first round, but the boxer will eventually run out of energy and Paul will take advantage of that by knocking Tyson out shortly after that.
The fact that Bell is predicting a Paul win by knockout is somewhat surprising, because the former two-time NFL All-Pro hasn’t been that impressed with the social media star. Just seven months ago, Bell was trying to get Paul to fight him.
“I will stop him. I will stop Jake Paul,” Bell said in August on the ‘No Jumper’ podcast. “It’s hard to knock somebody out if they don’t want to be knocked out. … he’s not doing eight rounds with me. There’s nobody in that influencer sh-t that’s making it eight rounds with me, for a fact.”
The 32-year-old Bell, who hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2020 season, clearly feels pretty confident about his boxing skills despite only three career matches. Bell has a 1-1 record as a boxer and his other match came in an exhibition against Adrian Peterson that ended with Bell winning by knockout.
Although Paul has no current plans to fight Bell, he will be getting into the ring with Tyson in July in a match that will be taking place at the home of the Cowboys, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
This will be the 11th fight for Paul (9-1), who actually got his start in 2020 when he fought on an undercard where Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. was the main event.
“I’m very much looking forward to stepping into the ring with Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,” Tyson said in a statement. “He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT. It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him off on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”
As for Bell, he thinks there’s only one reason why Paul pushed for this fight to happen.
The fight between Tyson and Paul will stream live on Netflix on July 20.
