Mike Tyson's 'fight' with Jake Paul was a cynical cash grab but it's nothing that boxing hasn't seen before

The cameras accidentally catching a flash of Mike Tyson’s bare backside was oddly appropriate.

Plenty of folk got their knickers in a twist over the ageing fighter’s content with social media star Jake Paul. But in reality, it was the general public that had their collective pants pulled down. There’s no real need to get working up into a lather over all of this. It was nothing more than a cynical cash grab and the general public fell into the trap.

Don’t feel bad though. It’s happened before and it will happen again. There’s always a rubber neck quality with these kinds of fights, a morbid fascination wrapped up in nostalgia and a blood lust that occasionally needs satisfied. No, it’s not a death blow to boxing. It wasn’t an affront for the sport or another sign it’s going down the drain. Some more poe-faced observers called in an embarrassment or a shame, a stain on the game.

Relax troops, it was none of the above. It was a 59-year-old former champ fighting a 27-year-old in a bout that meant hee haw in the grand scheme of things. Neither are real fighters and neither were ever in any danger of actually getting hurt. The pair of them made $50m between then, so who are the mugs?

It wasn’t some game changing moment in boxing either. This kind of nonsense has been going on for years. Muhammad Ali – the greatest – often topped up his bank account with daft exhibition matches – and sometimes when he was at his prime. He was the undisputed world champion when he famously took on Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in Tokyo in 1976.

That bout even made up new rules and Inoki spent the fight lying on the canvas kicking out at Ali’s legs like the Little Mermaid trying to get off a boat. The $6m he made more than made up for having