Denzel Washington Bluntly Responds to Tyson & Paul Fight

Denzel Washington has been having a fun and intelligent press tour for Gladiator II. He’s among the wisest and most accomplished actors of the film’s mostly young cast (Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger), so it makes sense that the soon-to-be 70-year-old star has been front and center with many of the bigger interviews for the film. Along the way, Washington has lamented the hopeless political system, gave a harsh appraisal to a period when he made a lot of bad movies (or “clunkers” as he called them), and has now even weighed in on the recent fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Streamed on Netflix, the fight disappointed many people, and the glitches and buffering of Netflix downright pissed them off.

Washington, a long-time boxing fan, recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the host asked him to share his thoughts about the fight (and if he actually considered it boxing). Washington had a simple but funny response:

Jimmy Kimmel went on to show a picture from 21 years ago with Washington shaking hands with Tyson after the boxer’s fight against Lennox Lewis in 2003. The late-night host commented that Washington looked happier there than he did when he won the Oscar (for Training Day), and that seems about right. Kimmel revealed to Washington that Mike Tyson had been on his show in recent weeks and said at the time that he may smoke weed or eat mushrooms before his fight with Jake Paul. Kimmel asked if Tyson displayed any evidence of that in the fight, and Washington quickly dismissed the question and moved on.

Check Out the Full Interview Below:

Denzel Washington and Boxing

The Hurricane

Release Date

September 17, 1999

Director

Norman Jewison

Rating

R

Cast

Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber, Denzel Washington, John Hannah

Runtime

146 Minutes

Genres

Drama

Writers

Armyan Bernstein, Dan Gordon

Studio(s)

Azoff Entertainment, Beacon Communications, Touchstone Pictures, Beacon Pictures, Buena Vista International, Universal Pictures

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Washington has been a fan of boxing for many years, and in fact continues to box every week despite approaching the age of 70. However, and quite ironically, the actor almost gave up boxing forever after he played an actual boxer, Rubin Carter, in the 1999 film, The Hurricane. The role found the actor sparring with actual boxers and engaging with a relentless training regime that would get Washington in shape like Carter. Unfortunately, throughout the process, Washington began to suffer frequent pain from headaches. During an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman back on July 29, 2013, Washington said:

”I remember I was with Michael Spinks, the ex-light-heavyweight champ. I was preparing for the film The Hurricane and we were actually sparring, not me and Spinks but me and another guy […] And I started getting a little slower and headaches and I said to Michael, ‘I’m starting to get headaches,’ and he said, ‘Oh you’ll get used to that.’ And that’s when I stopped. I don’t want to get used to that.”

Mike Tyson surely got used to it, and hopefully the results of his fight with Paul doesn’t make it any worse. Gladiator II with Denzel Washington comes to theaters on Nov. 22, 2024.