Above: Fight or farce, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul has created mainstream buzz. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images for Netflix)

THE TYSON UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

I can always judge the success an upcoming fight will have (or not have) by the amount of questions I get from friends, relatives and neighbors who are not avid boxing fans, as are you and I, asking about the event. Seemingly everyone I know has questions about Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul.

“Is Mike Tyson really coming back?”

“Are you going to Mike Tyson’s fight?”

“Is the Mike Tyson fight against this YouTube guy going to be real?”

“Do you think Mike Tyson-Jake Paul is going to be a big event?” 

The questions are endless.

The answers to the above four questions are “Yes,” “Yes,” “I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” and “It’s going to be huge!”

Stay tuned. We’ll be talking a lot more about this silly and outrageous – yet wildly popular and intriguing fight – in the months to come before the opening bell on November 15.

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Gary Antuane Russell has as much – if not more – natural talent and ability as any 140-pounder in the world.  However, on the undercard to Gervonta Davis-Frank Martin, Gary Antuane faced his toughest opponent – and lost. Yes, he lost a 12-round split decision to unbeaten Albert Puello, but Puello wasn’t his toughest opponent.  Inactivity was. Going into the fight, Russell’s previous bout had taken place 10 months earlier. It was a quick evening that night for Russell, who notched a first-round stoppage.  Prior to that, Russell had been off for 13 months.  Inactivity. It’s tougher than any opponent. P.S., the scores of the judges were head-scratching. Three veteran judges – Tim Cheatham, Glenn Feldman and Dave Hudson – could only agree on four of the rounds. Cheatham (113-113) and Feldman (115-112) agreed that Puello had won, while Hudson had Russell by a wide score (118-109).  “Commissioner’s Corner” had Russell the winner, 115-112.  However, Russell, who went into the fight with a 17-0 (17 KOs) record, was beaten more by his inactivity than he was by Puello or two of the judges. I wouldn’t mind seeing a rematch – sooner, rather than later… Speaking of junior welterweights, IBF titleholder Subriel Matias was given a boxing lesson by unbeaten Liam Paro, who took the title unanimously and impressively over the hard-hitting left-hooker… Also, staying with 140lb’ers, unbeaten contender Brandun Lee made a fine career choice when he signed with Split-T Management to handle his career.  The 25-year-old Lee is 28-0 (23 KOs), but has been out of action since winning a 10-round decision in April 2023.  With the backing of David McWater, Lee is sure to be in the upper echelon of the talented 140-pound division in the next year.

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Ivan Dychko (right) was last seen in the ring against journeyman Ariel Bracamonte, who got knocked out in the second round. (Photo by Nelson Quispe/Boxeo de Primera)

Does anybody know where unbeaten heavyweights Ivan Dychko and Bakhodir Jalolov are? These two giants have been extremely quiet. Especially Dychko. The 33-year-old from Kazakhstan makes his home in Florida, stands 6-foot-9 and weighs in around 240 pounds. He has a 13-0 record, with all but one of his wins coming by knockout – seven in the first round.  However, his last fight took place in June 2023, a TKO 2 victory. That fight took place almost a year after his previous outing, a one-sided unanimous decision win. Since then, there’s been no word about him. 

There’s also Bakhodir Jalolov, a southpaw from Uzbekistan who lives and trains in Brooklyn, New York.  Jalolov, 30, stands 6-foot-7 and moves the scales into the 250s. He was a quarterfinalist in the 2016 Olympics but remained an amateur for close to two more years. Since turning pro in 2018, he has had 14 bouts, winning them all by knockout. Seven opponents have failed to make it to the end of the first round. Each of these guys are too good to be so inactive.

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It was great seeing most of the top brass of Top Rank at the recent show at the Theater in Madison Square Garden – headlined by budding 154-pound superstar Xander Zayas. Hall-of-Famer/CEO of Top Rank Bob Arum was there, as well as Top Rank’s President, Todd DeBoef; C.O.O. Brad Jacobs; V.P. of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti; and Hall-of-Fame Matchmaker Bruce Trampler. When those guys ALL show up, you know they have big plans for the future. A packed, boisterous crowd – as well as some terrific bouts – left the Top Rank brass smiling, and sent the crowd home the same way. Hmm. How about a 2025 extravaganza in the main arena featuring Xander Zayas and Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington in world title bouts, with Jared Anderson in a major heavyweight bout?

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All major sports have training schools, camps and frequent seminars for their judges, referees and officials to learn and improve at. Until recently, boxing had nothing except the occasional seminars given by a few state commissions. Now, thanks to referees Jack Reiss, Russell Mora and Tom Taylor, along with a few others, the biggest, best and most thorough training camp for referees is here. It’s called Sole Arbiter. The next training camp/course will take place from August 30-September 1 at the Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. If you’re a ref and want to improve and hone your skills, Sole Arbiter is a must for you. If you’re a boxing fan, heading to Las Vegas and learning alongside many of your favorite officials is also a must. Check out the terrific Referee’s Course called SoleArbiter at SoleArbiter.com today.

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Jackie Kallen in James Toney’s corner before his fight against Roy Jones Jr. in 1994. (Photo by Holly Stein/Allsport via Getty Images)

Congratulations to all the inductees to the IBHOF’s Class of 2024. I especially want to salute Ms. Jackie Kallen, whose contributions to boxing as a manager, writer, publicist and spokesperson have been immeasurable.  Ms. Kallen’s induction took much longer than it should have, but, finally, she made it into boxing immortality in Canastota. Hers was truly one of those awards all of us felt great about.

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Sources tell me that Matt DeLaglio, the current Director of Boxing at the New York State Athletic Commission, may soon be named the agency’s Executive Director. The appointment to this lofty position comes from the office of New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul. Whether or not Gov. Hochul appoints someone else to replace DeLaglio as the NYSAC’s Director of Boxing is yet to be seen. However, the personable and knowledgeable DeLaglio could probably handle both jobs very well, and Gov. Hochul may not be able to find a Director of Boxing who could handle that job as well as DeLaglio does. The advice from this corner is to pay DeLaglio more money and have him do both jobs – which he has basically done for years, anyway!  

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SiriusXM gave Gerry Cooney and I a promotion. After  years of doing our show – “At the Fights” – in the Noon-2:00pm (ET) slot, we were moved to 3:00-5:00pm (ET). That’s “Drive Time” on the East Coast. That’s Lunchtime out West. The move came because boxing is experiencing a revitalization and a regrowth. One of the reasons is because 2024 has given boxing fans the fights they have been asking for, the fights they want to see.  Part of that reason is the meteoric rise of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to become (no pun intended) the Mecca of the sport. Much thanks must go to the man known as His Excellency, Turki Alalshiek, the Chairman of  the country’s General Entertainment Authority. Boxing fans the world over owe him a big “Thank You!” 

Unfortunately, not even His Excellency can stop boxing’s sanctioning bodies from doing what they do best–causing confusion in the sport.

Right now, we have one heavyweight champion. ONE!  When the bell rings for the start of the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury rematch, we’ll have two, as you can expect the IBF to yank their title away from Usyk and hand it to Daniel Dubois, who is their Interim Champion, having pounded Filip Hrgovic to an eighth-round stoppage on the June 1 boxing card in Riyadh. The full IBF belt will be on the line when Dubois takes on Anthony Joshua on September 21.

Unless His Excellency can figure a way to appease the alphabet soup organizations, we’ll be back to several heavyweight champions in 2025. Perhaps – hopefully – Mecca has the answer!