Mike Tyson’s Loss To Jake Paul Warns Generation To Do Intramurals While We Still Can
We may still have some good years left for intramurals or sports, but Iron Mike showed our generation that the clock is ticking. Compete and exercise before it's gone!
According to Netflix, 60 million households tuned into the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight this past Friday. There were so many viewers that it actually crashed the Netflix service. It may mark the first time that the legitimate feed was less stable than the illegal stream.
Nonetheless, as the fight got going and the stream straightened out, the one thing that I was watching was Mike Tyson, almost 60 years old, looking much like a 60 year old man getting beaten by a 27-year-old in his prime.
It was a sad revelation, as many of us went into the fight thinking of Mike Tyson as one of the greatest boxers of our age. Even with terrible behavior earlier in life, his athletic prowess could not be questioned. Not anymore.
Watching what I saw on Netflix was a reminder that it doesn't matter how great our heights are, age will catch up to us. They say Father Time is undefeated, and we were all reminded of that on Friday night.
His legs were particularly gone. He looked like a Jenga tower where the players had pulled all of the blocks from the bottom. One giant mass on top of a wobbly foundation. The injuries and time had taken their toll.
It was clear, Mike Tyson was no longer Baddest Man on the Planet but now rather just World's Greatest Grandpa.
For those of us who grew up watching him dominate boxing, like my fellow younger Gen-X or elder Millennial cohorts, the fight was a good reminder that age will eventually catch up to all of us.
Losing a Step
Mike Tyson was born in 1966, so he is an elder Gen Xer (the generation ranges from 1965 - 1980). At 58 and 30 years past his prime, it’s safe to say that Iron Mike has lost more than a step. If the best boxer in the world can break down like he did before turning 60, the same thing is going to happen to all of us Regular Joes.
This same week there was a relevant Twitter discussion about the number of steps we get. The @YimbyLand account was dumbfounded that a couple of his friends who live in non-walkable neighborhoods only get several thousands steps per day.
I, too, used to wonder about this step counting. When I lived in Seoul and New York City, I never had to think about how many steps I was taking. I didn’t even really have to think about working out because I was just so active in my everyday life.
Walking to work, climbing up and down subway platform stairs, carrying grocery bags all the way back home—who needs Planet Fitness?
I wondered why my friends back in Oklahoma were bragging on Facebook about getting 10,000 steps. In Manhattan, 10,000 steps is the minimum to just live.
Well, I learned how impressive the feat of 10,000 steps can be when I moved to suburban California. Once I was living in a more auto-centric environment, my step count plummeted (and my weight went up!).
I was somewhat surprised to find that Americans are about average when it comes to global step counts compared to other countries around the world (global average ≈ 5000). However, the US has high variability in terms of steps, as suburbanites walk a lot less than their urban counterparts.
What this means is that in the suburbs, people must choose to purposefully work out, rather than just living a healthier lifestyle by walking around the city.
I Believe it's Jogging or Yogging. It Might be a Soft ‘J’
The auto-centrism of suburbia helped spawn the workout and gym cultural craze in the US. There have long been fads of workout routines from Jazzercise in the 1980s to dance aerobics in the 1990s and 2000s, to SoulCycle in the 2010s. Even running as a hobby was a post-war invention!
Often, though, these kinds of workouts are not really about competition and instead just for staying in shape. Certainly, there are aspects of competition within them (such as CrossFit competitions), but battles against others are not generally the primary reason people join a gym. It’s more about exercise to keep the pounds off.
Exercise is a chore, a task to complete, not something to do for fun. This may help to explain that despite the proliferation of gyms on every corner and endless personal workout classes, America has only gotten less active and more obese.
College Intramurals Forever
One reason Americans love their college experiences so much is the intramural sports. For a lot of people, intramurals are the very last time they play some kind of organized sport. It is a shame because people find so much joy in competing, and as Tyson showed us, this ability to participate is finite.
I, for one, love playing basketball. But it’s not always easy to find a good run nor to play organized after graduation. I basically gave up playing completely for a few years.
Only once I found a new job that had a small culture of playing did I return to the court. After years off, I could tell my bones and muscles simply did not move the same—probably never will. Walking less plus not playing for years was a slow, gradual degradation.
I am happy to report, like the late, great fellow Oklahoman Toby Keith said, “I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was,” and my team just won our intramural basketball league. It’s too bad I lost years of not doing something I love.
Access to a court and a group of guys willing to play is something I took for granted when I was in college. Like so many other Americans, I may have simply hung up the Jordans forever if I did not get lucky at my new job.
For most, college intramurals is the last stand, even though our bodies allow us to keep playing for years to come. We give in to the isolation of suburbia.
What Mike Tyson’s sad performance shows us is that eventually the clock does run out on the ability to play these sports. The body really cannot take an infinite pounding, and ligaments and cartilage really do erode.
My advice is to get out there while you still can, fellow younger Gen Xers and elder Millennials (and you, too, rapidly aging Zoomers!). Find a crew, join a league, and seek competition before it’s too late.
You do not need to relive your high school glory days; instead, relive your old dorm days.
Eventually, though, some 27 year-old annoying viral star will punch you in the face, and you will find that you can no longer punch him back. At that point, you can always pick up pickleball or golf during the golden years.
The generations who grew up losing to Tyson in Punch-Out on Nintendo or Super Nintendo still have more in the tank, but time is ticking. One day, we will have our last pick-up game, our last at bat, our last competition. It just doesn’t have to be right now.