Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson suffered a medical emergency Sunday on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles, his representatives announced Monday.
Tyson “became nauseous and dizzy due to an ulcer flare-up 30 minutes before landing,” his representative said in a statement to The Times. “He thanks the medical staff who were there to help him.”
Tyson is “now doing very well,” according to the representative.
Tyson, 57, is preparing to face YouTube influencer Jake Paul, 27, on July 20 in Arlington, Texas. Tyson reigned as world champion from 1987 to 1990, but retired from professional boxing in 2005, when Paul was a child.
The fight will be broadcast live on Netflix; the streaming giant has expanded its efforts into live entertainment in recent months with “The Roast of Tom Brady” and the multipart “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA.” They also signed a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to move WWE’s flagship weekly wrestling series. “Monday Night Raw” to the streamer starting next year.
Tyson – who was once the youngest heavyweight boxing champion of the world – will be 58 when he faces Paul at AT&T Stadium this summer.
The boxer’s long saga, in and out of the sport, includes heavyweight titles, prison sentences, a memoir, a well-known appearance on “The Hangover” and, perhaps most infamously, biting a small piece of compatriot Evander Holyfield’s ear during a 1997 fight.
On Monday morning, Paul appeared to respond to Tyson’s medical incident and subsequent questions about the upcoming fight on social platform X, writing that people make things up “before they know the facts about clicks/likes.” . Nothing has changed #PaulTyson.
Tyson, who is considered one of boxing’s all-time greats, has praised the brash Youtuber and former Disney Channel star in the past, saying last year that the membership of Paul at the gym was helping put the bodies in seats.
Like Tyson, the influencer-turned-fighter has also sparked controversy in the past: He threw a massive house party during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the summer of 2020, which drew the ire of the mayor of Calabasas, among others.
California Daily Newspapers
