Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, 58, who recently recovered from a stomach ulcer, will face 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a boxing match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday. .

With an eye-popping $40 million up for grabs in the fight’s “purse” and no title belt at stake, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation-sanctioned showdown drew condemnation from the boxing community as a disgrace. it’s a product of celebrity culture, which some feel devalues ​​the artistry of the sport.

Friday’s match was the latest in a recent string of unorthodox matchups involving celebrities and former pros.

How did we get to the point where a former pro in failing health would face a man 31 years his junior in the boxing ring, potentially drawing millions of viewers around the world?

When did the celebrity boxing craze begin?

The concept of celebrity boxing matches has been around for decades, but until recently was limited to charity events and short-lived hipster TV shows.

These matches varied wildly in quality and intensity, from an unexpectedly energetic encounter between British comedians Ricky Gervais and Bob Mortimer in 2002 to a tepid but symbolic match between U.S. Senator Mitt Romney and five-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in 2015.

In 2017, then-UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor defeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. He broke with tradition by fighting in a cross-fight, referred to as the “Money Fight”.

For this fight, Mayweather was guaranteed $100 million and McGregor was guaranteed $30 million. Confidentiality agreements meant that the final payments were not published, but later reports from fighters’ camps indicate that the payments were much higher than expected.

That same year, an amateur boxing event in London pitted YouTube influencers against each other with a headline fight between 31-year-old British influencer and musician KSI and 28-year-old Joe Weller, also British influencer and musician.

This started a trend when Jake Paul, who made a name for himself by posting prank videos online, faced KSI the following year and then Mayweather in an exhibition match in 2021.

Why do celebrities and former professionals want to get in the ring?

Jake Paul has been clear that his priority is money.

“I’m here to make $40 million and take down a legend,” he said at a press conference in August.

Friday’s match will be exclusively televised by streaming service Netflix, a move that has boosted payouts in the field of blockbuster professional boxing matches.

For example, undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk pocketed nearly $45 million from his last fight against British boxer Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia in May.

This would certainly mark a considerable increase since Paul’s last fight against British boxer Tommy Fury; According to reports, Paul took home approximately $3.2 million from this fight.

Former British boxer Duke McKenzie, who won world titles in three weight classes, told Al Jazeera that unlike Paul, Tyson’s motivation was probably not just money.

“It’s his ego, nothing more, nothing less,” he said stubbornly.

McKenzie said Tyson could find many other ways to make money, including using his fame to endorse products that show the former boxer is driven by a desire to relive past victories.

The fight was originally scheduled for July 20, but was postponed after Tyson’s stomach ulcer flared up.

This, combined with his age, left McKenzie concerned that the former champion was putting his ego ahead of his health.

“What we are looking at is an old warrior, worn out by shock, who unfortunately still wants to relive his past.

“I wish he could walk away from the sport with his head held high, but his ego won’t allow it.”

What else fuels the celebrity boxer craze?

In 2023, the celebrity feud trend reached new levels when it was revealed that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla founder and owner of social media platform X Elon Musk had agreed to a “cage fight.”

Musk announced on his platform that after his meetings with the Italian prime minister and the minister of culture, they “agreed on an epic location” and added that “everything in the camera frame will be ancient Rome.”

Although the match never came to fruition, the episode showed how popular the concept had become.

“The process of becoming ultra-rich is a ruthless competition that reveals a form of hyper-masculinity,” Caroline Knowles, a sociologist and Global Professorial Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera.

The same drive — an intense desire to succeed in business — also contributed to entering the high-risk, competitive world of combat sports, he said.

Knowles examined the behavior of the super-rich in London in his book Serious Money: Walking through Plutocratic London.

He said he found during his research that activities that most people would consider hobbies would be taken much more seriously by those in the hyper-competitive world of multimillionaires and billionaires.

He recalled talking to Russian oligarchs who were into mountaineering, always “trying to push the limits” and competing to see who could reach the world’s highest peaks.

Knowles added that the arrogance of being in a wealthy elite can make a person believe they can do anything, including stepping into an octagon cage or fighting a former professional boxer.

What does this mean for boxing?

From a business perspective, McKenzie said celebrity matchups garner both money and attention in boxing, but it “devalues” the sport because the standards of the fighters “are not representative of real boxing”.

This is a view expressed by many in the boxing world.

Eddie Hearn, one of the sport’s best-known promoters, told BBC Sport in October: “If I were Jake Paul I’d be a bit embarrassed to be honest.”

“This is dangerous, irresponsible and, in my opinion, disrespectful to the sport of boxing,” Hearn added.

McKenzie runs his own boxing gym and estimates that 80 percent of the men who sign up there “want to be Jake Paul.”

“Everyone who walks through my door thinks they can be champions after three or four games,” he said.

However, he added that Paul’s fast, “big money” route to the fight overshadowed the hard work and real-life mental and physical struggle that boxers have to put into their craft.

“The truth is that being a boxer requires a certain mentality. “I remember waking up at 5 a.m., going for a 16-kilometer (10-mile) run on an empty stomach, and hitting the gym at 2 a.m.,” he said.

Why are celebrity boxing matches approved?

There are numerous international sanctioning bodies in boxing, resulting in more than 100 titles up for grabs and a complex lineup of multiple world champions in different weight categories.

There are four major organizations that sanction boxing matches: the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

However, for those with a passing interest in the sport, the system can seem confusing and the importance of a single belt can be diminished with so many belts in the mix.

Experts said the confusion increased the appeal of a blockbuster winner-take-all matchup between two big names.

Celebrity boxing matches that have nothing to do with rankings or titles only need to be approved by the boxing commission of the governing body hosting the event (the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in the case of Tyson and Paul).

While McKenzie says he sees the sheer number of championships in boxing as a problem, he still sees social media as the primary driving force behind this latest craze.

It’s doubtful the fight would have been sanctioned before the age of social media, but the glamor and money it could now bring to the sport has irreparably changed the landscape.

He fears it will take a serious injury to someone like the aging Tyson or the inexperienced Paul for the appeal of celebrity boxing to fade.

The fight will take place on Friday, November 15, and the event is scheduled to start at 19:00 local time (01:00 GMT on November 16).