Surprising news hit the dual worlds of boxing and social media influencing on Thursday, as Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was announced as a heavyweight boxing match set for July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. According to a news release from Most Valuable Promotions, the promotional company co-founded by Paul, the bout will air on Netflix as part of a new partnership between MVP and the streaming giant.
A fight between Paul and Tyson is almost guaranteed to garner interest from sports bettors, but the question of where to find the best betting odds on the bout is a complicated one. Many of the top legal online sportsbooks don’t offer boxing odds on all of Paul’s fights for a variety of reasons.
Why aren’t there betting odds on Paul vs. Tyson?
First, there’s the issue of sanctioning. Paul and Tyson have not yet clarified whether their fight will be sanctioned as an official professional bout by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (which acts as a state athletic commission to regulate combat sports in Texas). Without sanctioning, the fight could still take place as an exhibition, but that would prevent most legal online sportsbooks in the US from taking bets on it.
Exhibition bouts have sometimes been used as workarounds in situations where sanctioning might be an issue. Tyson’s bout against Roy Jones Jr. in Los Angeles in 2020, for instance, was officially billed as an exhibition bout. As for Paul, his last fight took place in Puerto Rico just last week, and most legal online sportsbooks did not offer odds on the fight.
Whether or not the fight ends up being sanctioned, different states may have different guidelines for which fights sportsbooks can offer odds on. For Paul’s 2023 bout against Tommy Fury, for instance, online sportsbooks were permitted to accept bets on the fight in only seven states.
States that offered odds on Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury:
Would Texas sanction a professional fight between Paul and Tyson?
As state athletic commissions go, Texas hasn’t always been known for having the most stringent requirements. However, there would still be some major potential obstacles to sanctioning for Paul vs. Tyson.
The biggest one is likely Tyson’s age. The former heavyweight boxing champ turns 58 the month before this scheduled fight. Many state athletic commissions require greater medical scrutiny of fighters who are over 35, out of a concern for the health risks. Paul is 27, making him slightly over 30 years younger than Tyson, which could be a red flag for the sake of professional sanctioning.
There is also the massive disparity in boxing experience, which is another variable that commissions typically use to make sanctioning decisions. Paul has 10 professional boxing matches on his official record. Tyson has more than 50 pro fights, not counting several exhibition fights and an extensive amateur record before he turned pro at age 18.