Mike Tyson and Jake Paul are hoping they aren’t the only heavy hitters coming to Dallas this summer. Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced a series of VIP ticket packages for the July 20 prize fight Thursday, including one package that will run $2 million. The $2 million package, dubbed the MVP Owner’s Experience, will offer two ringside apron seats never before offered in boxing. The VIP package also includes four first-row floor seats and four second-row floor seats, along with a pre-fight photo with Paul and Tyson and gloves signed by both fighters. “We’re trying to bring awareness and exposure back to boxing in a gigantic way.
That has not been the case for many, many years,” MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian said, per Jessica Golden of CNBC. Tyson and Paul are set for a heavyweight prizefight at AT&T Stadium on July 20. The fight will be an officially sanctioned fight after initially being billed as an exhibition. Tyson last fought Roy Jones Jr. in a November 2020 exhibition. His last professional bout was a June 2005 loss to Kevin McBride. The 19 years between professional boxing matches is unheard of, but we’re in a new era in the sport. Tyson, Jones, Evander Holyfield and several legends have come out of retirement for pay checks in recent years due to the growth of the celebrity boxing trend. Paul, who became famous from Vine and YouTube, is the face of the movement. He began his career with a fight against streamer Ali Eson Gib in 2020 and then knocked out Nate Robinson on the Tyson-Jones undercard later that year. From there, Paul’s boxing career launched into the stratopshere, making him one of the most bankable names in the sport. Paul is 9-1 in his pro career overall, with his lone loss coming to Tommy Fury, the brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
“I saw a YouTube of him at 16 doing weird dances. That’s not the guy I’m gonna be fighting,” Tyson said last month. “This guy is gonna come, he’s gonna try to hurt me, which I’m accustomed to, and he’s gonna be greatly mistaken.”