Hello and welcome to AT&T Stadium for a night at the fights unlike any we can immediately remember. Mike Tyson is ending a 7,097-day layoff from professional fighting to face the boxer-influencer Jake Paul in a non-title heavyweight bout scheduled for eight rounds at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

If you’re reading this, it’s unlikely Tyson needs any introduction. In 1986, at 20 years old, the Brooklyn native became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, laying waste to Trevor Berbick inside two rounds to win the World Boxing Council title. After unifying the other major title belts, the nominal Baddest Man on the Planet made six defenses of the undisputed heavyweight championship before losing in a historic upset to James ‘Buster’ Douglas by 10th-round knockout in February 1990. Convicted of rape in 1992 and sentenced to six years in prison, Tyson served three years before being released on parole and was never again the same destructive force, closing his professional ledger with six wins and five defeats with two no-contests.

While Tyson remains one of the most recognizable people in the world nearly two decades after his last official fight, there are few people under the age of 30 who don’t know Paul. After cultivating an enormous public profile on Vine and YouTube alongside elder brother Logan, the Cleveland native has managed to develop into a competent boxer since taking up the sport and turning professional in 2020. He’s had 11 paying fights since then, mostly against former mixed martial arts fighters and journeyman boxers with the odd retired NBA player thrown in. His lone setback came by split decision to Tommy Fury last year, but he’s won four on the trot since then including a July knockout of Mike Perry, a veteran of the MMA and bare-knuckle boxing circuits.

Some have called it a circus. But with two world title fights on the TV undercard, including Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in a hotly anticipated rematch of their 2022 classic, there’s plenty of value on offer for viewers who aren’t keen on watching two men with 31 years between them exchange leather.

The live Netflix broadcast starts in 15 minutes and there will be three preliminary bouts ahead of the main event. The order of play will be as follows:

It’s uncertain when Paul and Tyson will make their entrances for the main event, but it won’t happen before 10pm local time. That’s 11pm on the US east coast and 4am in the UK.