UFC CEO Dana White has been good friends with Mike Tyson for a long time and is concerned for his health ahead of his return to the boxing ring.

Friday, Tyson (50-6) will step through the ropes at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to take on YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in an eight-round professional bout, which serves as the main event of the first live sporting event to stream on Netflix.

The matchup has drawn criticism due to the age difference, as Tyson, who is 58, will square off with a much younger Paul (10-1), who is 27. When asked about the fight, White refrained from talking down on the fight and instead offered concerns about Tyson’s health.

“I will not say anything bad about this fight because I love Mike Tyson,” White said on “The Jim Rome Show.” “The only thing that I hope is that Mike comes out of this fight healthy.

“… I just hope he does. At 58 years old, I mean, I’m 55, and obviously, I’ve never been the level of athlete that Mike Tyson is, but 27 vs. 58? It’s hard to consistently work out at that age just for health purposes and not get hurt. To train for something like this? It’s just – I love Mike. I hope he makes a bunch of money on Friday, and I hope he comes out healthy.”

Tyson was last in action four years ago in an exhibition boxing bout against fellow legend Roy Jones Jr. It was a fight in which clearly both fighters were not trying to hurt each other that resulted in a draw. Tyson’s last professional bout was in June 2005 against Kevin McBride. Tyson lost the fight by TKO in the sixth round.

In the late 1980s, Tyson became a legendary force in the world of boxing as the WBC and IBF heavyweight champion. He was a crossover superstar who created viral moments way before the existence of social media. However, the days of Tyson’s prime in the ring are well behind him, and White understands why it would be difficult to turn down a lucrative offer to fight Paul.

“When you’ve accomplished what Mike Tyson has accomplished, and that type of money is offered to you, it’s hard to not,” White said. “It’s about Mike having money issues or anything like that. Mike does fine. Mike does well, but when you have that type of money waved in front of you – I’ve told this story, it’s been told a million times. When Mike was going to fight before, I said, ‘Mike, don’t do this.’ So, I put him on Shark Week. I get a deal done for him to do Shark Week. He’s like, ‘Oh you care about me? I’ve been fighting since I was 12, but you want to throw me in the water with sharks? You’re an idiot.’ And I can’t disagree with him. He’s absolutely right.

“… At the end of the day, it’s none of our business, it’s Mike Tyson’s business. He’s a grown man, he does what he wants to do, and I love him and I just want the best for him.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Paul vs. Tyson.

Mike Tyson may be 58 years old but he looks absolutely shredded just a day away from his fight against Jake Paul in a special boxing event airing live on Netflix.

During the official weigh-ins Thursday, Tyson hit the scale looking like he really put in a hard training camp to get ready for his first professional fight in nearly 20 years. There’s no word on how much Tyson weighed because the weigh-ins were closed to the public and the media with Paul’s company Most Valuable Promotions responsible for releasing the info, per the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

See weigh-in photos of the headliners below.

In the days leading up to the fight, Tyson has stayed rather stoic while insisting that he’s just interested in getting back in the ring rather than going through any further promotional bluster. Now he sits just over 24 hours away from throwing down with Paul in a special eight-round fight.

Meanwhile, Paul also looked like he was in great shape as he moves up to the heavyweight division for the chance to face a legend in Tyson.

Paul often joked during his training camp about the amount of weight he was packing on for the fight against Tyson.

Now with the official weigh-ins completed, Paul and Tyson face off one last time at the ceremonial weigh-ins, which are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Boxing legend Mike Tyson is looking in great shape for his boxing fight against Jake Paul.

At 58, Tyson stepped on the scale Thursday morning in Irving, Texas, to record his official weight for his boxing bout against Paul, which takes place Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The fight streams live on Netflix.

Check out this photo of Tyson on the scale Thursday morning in Texas:

Mike doesn’t look 58 years old pic.twitter.com/H2DWnBUnzp

— Uncrowned (@uncrownedcombat) November 14, 2024

The fight between Tyson and Paul serves as the main event of the first live sporting event to stream on Netflix.

The contest is scheduled for eight, 2-minute rounds, which is a minute shorter than a typical men’s professional boxing bout. There are other rules in place that differ from the norm.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Paul vs. Tyson.

Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast both qualified for next year’s tournament on Wednesday despite not playing – and that theme continued on Thursday.

Central African Republic had to win away against Lesotho in order to put pressure on Gabon in Group B, but a 1-0 defeat in Bloemfontein means CAR’s wait for their Nations Cup debut will continue for at least another two years.

Congo-Brazzaville also needed three points from their trip to South Sudan in Group K, but finished with 10 men as they lost 3-2 in Juba.

That result handed qualification to group leaders Uganda, who will be back at the finals for the first time since 2019, and South Africa.

Ali Abdi was the hero for Tunisia against Madagascar in Group A, netting just four minutes after Wajdi Kechrida was sent off.

The Malagasy had twice fought back from a goal down, and were eliminated after being denied a point in the closing stages.

Elsewhere Libya kept their faint chances alive in Group D as Fahd Saad Mohamed struck a late winner against Rwanda in Malawi.

There are 10 matches scheduled on Friday, when Botswana, Comoros, Mali, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe all have a chance to qualify.

When Chris Weidman suffered a gruesome broken leg back in 2021, he had no idea the amount of time, surgeries and rehabilitation that it would take to get back in the cage again.

Over two years and 14 surgeries later, the New York native finally returned to action but he wouldn’t wish what he went through on anybody else. While thankfully it’s not exactly a common occurrence, Weidman witnessed Detroit Lions star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson suffer through almost exact same injury when his leg snapped after colliding with a teammate as he sacked Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.

Hutchinson ultimately broke the fibula and tibia, which required him to undergo emergency surgery just hours after the game ended. Initially, the former Michigan Wolverine was expected to be out of action for at least six to eight months but there was some optimism that perhaps he could return even sooner if the Lions made the Super Bowl, which takes place on Feb. 9.

That equals out to four months between the injury and playing football again.

While he can’t predict how quickly Hutchinson will recover, Weidman knows from his own experience — and 14 total surgeries on his leg — that coming back from something so traumatic takes time.

“That’s not happening,” Weidman told MMA Fighting about Hutchinson playing again this season. “I really hope the best for him. I don’t know the full extent of his injuries. I don’t know exactly what happened. I saw the videos but I haven’t seen the x-rays. I don’t know what they did surgery wise.

“I can tell you with me, it was the hardest thing I’ve been through in my life by far. I mean it took me over two years to come back. I fought in April 2021 and I think I fought [August] 2023. Around that same time but it’s not fun.”

Based on reports, Hutchinson’s optimistic timeline to recover was based on a few key factors.

The fracture itself was a clean break with no ligament or nerve damage done. Hutchinson was also able to get the surgery to repair the damage done almost immediately after the injury happened because he was close to Baylor University Medical Center, which is a Level 1 trauma center, where Dr. Alan Jones resides.

Jones is widely regarded as one of the top experts in tibia and fibula injuries and repairs.

Weidman didn’t know the extent of the injuries that Hutchinson suffered so he couldn’t speculate when comparing potential recovery times, especially after he suffered through a compound fracture when his leg broke in a fight.

“Every injury’s definitely different,” Weidman said. “It’s a traumatic injury so everyone is going to be a little bit different. Some people could possibly come back faster. Did it go through the muscle? Did it come out of the skin? Did it hit nerves? Did they fix the fibula as well as fix the tibia?

“I’m sure they put a pin through the tibia if he broke that but a lot of times they don’t put the plates on the fibula. So it just kind of depends on what he ended up doing.”

There’s no telling if Hutchinson would actually attempt to play again this season and that’s obviously also depending on how far the Lions potentially go in the playoffs.

Right now, Detroit sits at 8-1 overall with a great chance to possibly land the No. 1 seed in the NFC, which would give them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

If the Lions can make it all the way to the Super Bowl, perhaps Hutchinson really could become a medical marvel and play again in the biggest game of the season but Weidman knows the journey there is going to be incredibly difficult.

Much like fighting, football is a violent, contact sport and it’s a lot to ask of the human body to go through a traumatic injury and then bounce back in such quick fashion.

If anything, Weidman hopes that perhaps Hutchinson could get a little extra help in his recovery and then perhaps playing in the Super Bowl might actually be possible.

“It’s very physical,” Weidman said. “You’ve got to explode off of it. I hope he’s able to come back fast. I tried my ass off to come back as fast as possible.

“I would say if he can get on some steroids and get on some performance enhancers and they let him do that, I think that’s smart and I think that should be allowed. That maybe would help being able to come back faster. But doing it all natural, it’s not easy.”

UFC 309 fight week is upon us and while most of the attention has been on the fights atop the bill, circumstances have required the promotion to tinker with the undercard.

Thursday, the promotion made two changes to Saturday’s card at Madison Square Garden in New York official. With Lucas Almeida out of his preliminary card bout vs. David Onama, in steps promotional newcomer Roberto Romero.

Romero (8-3-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) went 6-1-1 in Combate Global in the eight fights prior to his UFC signing. He most recently competed in July and won by first-round rear-naked choke. The win bounced him back from a loss in December.

Onama (12-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) has proven himself a must-watch fighter over the span of his six-fight UFC tenure to date. Whether it’s his brutal knockout of Gabriel Santos or his back-and-forth wars against Nate Landwehr and Mason Jones, Onama has proven himself a tough test for all opposition.

Additionally, the main card opener between Mauricio Ruffy (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and James Llontop (14-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC) has been changed from lightweight (155 pounds) to super lightweight (165 pounds). No reason was given for this change.

With the changes, the UFC 309 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for heavyweight title
• Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira
• Paul Craig vs. Bo Nickal
• Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
• James Llontop vs. Mauricio Ruffy

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNews/FX/Hulu, 8 p.m. ET)

• Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
• Eryk Anders vs. Chris Weidman
• Damon Jackson vs. Jim Miller
• David Onama vs. Roberto Romero

PRELIMINARY CARD (Hulu/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

• Jhonata Diniz vs. Marcin Tybura
• Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall
• Bassil Hafez vs. Oban Elliott
• Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.