CNN
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Mike Tyson enters the ring. His youthful appearance hides the strength he possesses.

The year is 1985 and the heavyweight is about to make his first step into professional boxing. One minute and 47 seconds later, 18-year-old Tyson forced opponent Hector Mercedes to retreat after a series of devastating blows to the body and head.

This was the beginning of a difficult ring career for Tyson, filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Now, 39 years later, “Iron Mike” will return to the ring at the age of 58.

On Friday, Tyson will once again put on the gloves for a professional bout against 27-year-old YouTuber Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, 7,000 days after his last professional outing.

His last professional fight was a loss to Kevin McBride over 19 years ago, and his last exhibition fight was, coincidentally, four years ago when Paul fought in his second professional fight on the undercard of this very event.

The two were initially scheduled to fight in July this year, but the match was postponed after Tyson flared up an ulcer.

Competing at the highest level presents challenges, with athletes becoming more difficult to regain physical and mental conditioning as they age. But in a sport like boxing, there are also neurological difficulties.

D., clinical associate professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical. According to Nitin K Sethi, given that his entire professional life has been based around taking blows to the head, Tyson may be at higher risk of neurological damage when he steps back into the ring. College.

Boxing commissions in particular generally classify fighters as “high” risk of sustaining further injury if they are fighting over the age of 40.

“When you talk about fighters over 40 now, you worry about two things,” Sethi, who also works as a ring doctor, told CNN. “First, I worry about fighting in the ring, because is this fighter more prone to a serious traumatic brain injury while in the ring under my supervision due to his age?

“The second thing I’m worried about is that this person is a fighter with many years of professional boxing experience. You are worried about chronic neurological injuries.

CNN contacted Tyson to offer him a chance to comment on any potential health issues he may face ahead of his fight against Paul.

Boxing is “unique,” ​​as Sethi explains. The concept of a sport where the goal is to punch and knock out the opponent (primarily in the head) means that boxing comes with very specific health issues.

In his role as ring doctor, where he is accustomed to assessing the fitness of fighters in the ring, Sethi sees firsthand the regularity with which concussions occur in boxing. If he stepped in and stopped the fight every time he saw a boxer showing concussion-like symptoms, he says, “there would be no such thing as boxing.”

But the real danger of the sport doesn’t just come from big, explosive knockouts that bring fans to their feet. Long-term repercussions can result from repeated blows received by top boxers during the fight and during the training process.

“If you have someone whose profession involves a lot of head impacts both during training and during competition and while in the ring, those head injuries and head impact exposures add up,” Sethi said. “So when you talk about chronic neurological injuries in boxing, I personally think that’s a bigger problem.”

However, unlike knockouts and obvious signs of concussion, the cumulative effect of these long-term blows only occurs “when the bright lights aren’t shining on them, so no one cares,” Sethi explained.

Long after they retire, boxers can develop symptoms or conditions such as inability to sleep, chronic dizziness, chronic post-concussion symptoms, chronic Parkinson’s symptoms, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

But Sethi believes equal attention should be paid to the impact repeated blows to the head throughout their career can have on a boxer’s brain and learning how to protect them from long-term neurological problems.

And the susceptibility to neurological complications only increases with age.

For example, the New York State Athletic Commission’s medical standards manual lists numerous factors that can classify boxers as “high-risk fighters”; For example, they are over 40 years old and have been inactive for more than a year after starting professional sports. career among others.

Many boxers continued to fight past the age of 40; Legends like Sugar Ray Robinson, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Larry Holmes all fought from that point on.

“The reason 40 is used as the cutoff value is because concerns have been raised that older fighters are more prone to injury if they enter the ring or cage, or that an older brain is less able (well) to handle a concussion, for example. for example, a younger brain,” explains Sethi.

“You can look at it both ways. One is their propensity to get hurt. But is it the fact that even if they get injured, age itself is detrimental to the healing process?”

Tyson falls into both of these categories, as he will fight at age 58 and has not fought professionally since 2005.

According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), the commission that certifies professional fighting, boxers over the age of 36 must submit current electroencephalogram or electrocardiogram test results, which measure brain and heart activity, before a fight. .

TDLR told CNN that “(fighters’) test results must be positive for them to be approved for competition.”

TDLR told CNN it had sanctioned the professional bout between Tyson and Paul with certain waivers, meaning the fight would last eight rounds with two minutes per round and both boxers wearing 14-ounce gloves.

Brain injuries in boxing are not a new phenomenon.

They were being studied in the sport as early as 1928, when American scientist Harrison Martland described boxers as “punch drunk” when they showed signs of concussion; Other terms that describe a fighter’s neurological condition after a major bout include dementia pugilistica and slugfest. crazy.

Aside from the additional neurological testing given to fighters throughout their careers, Sethi believes there is more that can be done to protect fighters and prevent long-term neurological damage.

“A lot of changes in boxing need to come from the boxers themselves, their families, retired boxers; “They need to say, ‘Make sports safer for us,'” he said. “Boxing culture is such that no one says: ‘No (no more).’

“No boxer says: ‘Enough is enough. ‘I’m giving up.’ And I always say: ‘There’s no harm in saying No.’ There will be days when you step into the ring and it’s not your day and you decide: ‘Okay, okay. “I don’t think I can continue this boxing.”

Boxing, for all its obvious health risks, has faced opposition, including from some medical associations. World Medical Association – have taken up the call for a complete ban on boxing everywhere in the world.

But despite these calls, it remains one of the most popular sports in the world, for obvious reasons. The explosive nature of the sport, its stories and colorful personalities make it must-watch TV from time to time.

Tyson has brought all of this to boxing throughout his long and often controversial career, but the neurological impact he may feel when he steps into the ring on Friday may outweigh the positives.