Boxing Hall of Fame broadcaster says celebrity matches do ‘literally nothing’ for the sport

It’s safe to say that Al Bernstein isn’t the biggest fan of celebrity boxing matchups. 

During his appearance on OutKick’s “The Ricky Cobb Show,” the 73-year-old broadcaster was asked about his thoughts on the upcoming Mike Tyson-Jake Paul bout.

“My feeling is, at the end of the day, it means nothing to the sport of boxing. Literally nothing, it is – they’re all one-offs. I don’t subscribe to the theory that they bring new fans, or it drives fans away. My feeling is they’re one-offs, and if the people want them, they are going to keep happening.”

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Bernstein was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012 for his work as a journalist and broadcaster in the sport. He has been covering boxing since the 1970s, and while he might believe that celebrity boxing matches add “nothing” to the sport, they don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“We live in a society now, don’t we, where if something is marketable, it doesn’t matter what it is, it’ll happen, right? It is all about marketability, and that’s what this is. People appear to have an appetite for it, they have had an appetite for a number of these celebrity boxing matches, and you can even include in that MMA and boxing crossover fights.”

“People, for whatever reason, want to see it, and if you can make a dollar off of it in this day and age, you can have it.”

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Sportscaster Al Bernstein speaks at a news conference for the fight between WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner at MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on January 16, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

As for who Bernstein thinks will win the match between Paul and Tyson? That’s not what Bernstein is focused on.

“In his high 50s, you worry about what could happen to Tyson in this fight, to be honest. I did Mike Tyson’s last two legitimate boxing matches when he lost to Danny Williams and [Kevin] McBride, and that was a long, long time ago, and he didn’t perform as well in those fights as he wanted.”

“It’s hard to imagine at this advanced age he’s going to discover something he didn’t have in his last two fights 25 or 30 years ago, so I don’t know. I mean it’s hard to imagine him being effective in this, but I just hope everybody gets through it safely. That would be my only hope.”

Bernstein said that if Paul were a professional boxer facing only professional boxers, he would be a “cruiser weight with a winning record but not anything special.”

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Mike Tyson, left, and Jake Paul attend a press conference in New York City on August 18, 2024, ahead of their heavily anticipated bout in November. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Tyson is 50-6 with 44 knockouts in his professional boxing career. His last professional fight was on June 11, 2005, when he lost to McBride.

Paul has a 9-1 record in his matches, with six wins coming by way of knockout. 

The match between them is being held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 15. The bout will be streamed globally by Netflix.

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