Legendary actor Denzel Washington who recently starred in Gladiator 2 briefly talked boxing and Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Washington is a big boxing fan.
When asked what he thought of the recent Paul vs Tyson event on Netflix he took the high road and said to Kimmel:
“Jimmy Kimmel:
I know you’re a big boxing fan. Would you consider what happened this weekend to be…
Mike Tyson is one of the all-time greats. I’m glad he got paid. It’s kind of how I felt about it, too.Denzel Washington:
Yeah, I was rooting for Mike.Jimmy Kimmel:
This is a photo from 2002, Memphis, Tennessee—Tyson versus Lennox Lewis. You look happier than when you won the Oscar. I think you know who’s behind you in that shot?Denzel Washington:
Yeah, that’s Michael Spinks (in the photo above behind me and Tyson in the picture). I realize now that JB Smoove modeled his Curb Your Enthusiasm character after him, because Michael’s ensemble is something else. He even has muscles in there too. Look at that!Jimmy Kimmel:
Do you know Mike personally?Denzel Washington:
No, I’ve never hung out with him or the Tigers. He told me he was here a few weeks ago and mentioned there was a good chance he was going to smoke pot before the fight, maybe even do mushrooms. Did you sense any of that in the ring?Jimmy Kimmel:
No, I didn’t.”
Overall, the event showed great fights on the undercard and got a lot of new fans to the sport of boxing too.
Netflix when they come back to boxing can pick better main events and dip in and dip out as they choose with no schedule or no Commissioner to go through, making boxing a great success for their first live sporting event so far on the platform.
The fact remains that Netflix were hugely happy with the numbers the event did and boxers on the undercard got a great opportunity and pay day thanks to Tyson mainly.
