Italian
Rosie Perez has been a lifelong boxing fan. However she kept her love for the sport a secret because so many people find it “too barbaric.” But a few years ago, she began tweeting commentary while watching fights.
Fast forward to today. Nicknamed “The First Lady of Boxing,” Perez is one of the official commentators of the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul match taking place Friday night in Dallas and airing live on Netflix.
“It’s gonna be and interesting matchup,” Perez told me Thursday. “Jake Paul is in his late 20s, and Mike Tyson is 58. Three decades. It’s crazy.”
Like many, Perez wasn’t thrilled when Paul began his career. “Everyone hated on him when he first got into boxing, including myself,” she said. “But it was less about hate, it was more about concern. This is a real sport. You don’t play boxing. People can get hurt. People have lost their lives in the ring, so that’s why I was against him. But he just kept going. He kept going and going.”
Popular on Variety Perez isn’t making any predictions on who will win because she believes each has an equal shot. “Mike looking the way he looks now it’s, everyone’s saying it’s a 50/50, chance,” she says. “Where before they were like, ‘Jake Paul has this in the bag because he’s younger and he does have knockout power.’ He’s knocked out about five of his opponents — but they all weren’t Mike Tyson.”
This following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
How worried are you about Mike or Jake getting seriously injured?
I’m always worried at every single boxing match, because one punch can change a fight. Yeah, one could knock somebody out unexpectedly. So I am concerned. I’m not only concerned for Tyson, I’m also concerned for Jake Paul, but I’m more concerned for Tyson because of his age.
What are some of your favorite boxing movies?
“The Harder They Fall” with Humphrey Bogart because it was the first boxing film I saw that dealt with the business of boxing, and it broke my heart because I didn’t know how grimy it was, and how back then the mob just took advantage of people. Then there’s the first “Rocky” and top of the line is “Raging Bull.” What De Niro did with that character, how he understood the fight game, it was crazy. The cinematography and the direction by Martin Scorsese was insane. I was watching the movie for the first time and I knew what the outcome was because I know the fight, but I was still on the edge of my seat.
Jake Paul is a big supporter of Donald Trump. I wanted to get your reaction to that — or do you think sports and politics shouldn’t mix?
When I’m at a boxing match, I never talk politics. Donald Trump shows up at UFC fights, and he showed up at the boxing matches, and he was in the business of boxing before he destroyed Atlantic City. But what I’ve learned over the years because I’m very, very outspoken is when I’m at a boxing match, I don’t talk about it. That said, I hate to give [Trump] credit. It’s a genius move for Trump to put himself in the sports world because it’s a tribal thing, right? If you think about it, we have all these different nationalities. When you are at a sporting match, everyone’s in the same tribe. Even if you are rooting for the opposite team, you’re all there for the same reason. And that is huge access to the American population. In regards to Jake Paul, my point of view of him as a businessman changed because he supported women’s boxing. Women’s boxing has been ignored for so long. They never got paid the same as men. They’re still getting punched in the face just like men are. They’re still getting knocked out just like men, but they won’t get the same money. If you’re gonna punch me in the face, you better pay me the same amount you’re paying this guy over here. They kept saying, “Nobody wants to see women’s boxing. Nobody is into women fighting.’ The first one to prove that wrong was Dana White and the second one to prove that wrong was Jake Paul. He put on a match with Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. He said, “I’m going to sell out Madison Square Garden, and I’m going to get these women paid.” And he did. After the fight, Amanda said she was finally able to afford buying a house.
I know you don’t like to mix sports and politics, but I do have to ask you how you’re feeling after the election?
There were so many Democrats that were devastated, and they kept asking me, “Why are you not devastated? I said, “I’m not devastated. I’m just worried. I’m worried for the country.” I said, “I told you guys from day one, even though I campaigned for her — because I was like, we gotta do everything, all hands on deck to make sure she wins more so to make sure he doesn’t get back into office — but from day one I kept telling the campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And guess what? It bit us in the ass, and that’s just a hard pill to swallow. But we got to take our medicine and get up off the fucking canvas and start training again and keep the fight going. It’s like this pity party that they were all having. I’m like, “What the hell is wrong with, y’all? We’ve been here before. We’ve lost before.” You cry for one night, and then get over it. You’re the first person I’ve said this to because nobody wanted me to push that message out there. I kept telling everyone, “I live in the real world.” I know that the far right accuses me of being an elitist because I’m in the entertainment business, and I clap right back at them. I said, “Listen, motherfuckers, I come from abject poverty. I am the American dream. I bust my ass. I get turned down all the time because of my color and my nationality and my ethnicity. I’m fighting every single day for my career, so screw you.” And believe it or not, I’m more moderate than you think I am because I live in the real world. But there are so many Republicans out there that are not Trumpers, and we got to stop hating on them. We gotta start listening to them. We gotta start listening to what they are trying to tell us what they want from a government.
As you said, Trump goes to fights. If he showed up at the Tyson-Paul match, would you shake his hand?
No, but I wouldn’t be rude to him because he’s going to be our next president. I wouldn’t want to offer him any type of disrespect, but I don’t know if I could shake that man’s hand in good faith. But like I said, boxing and politics shouldn’t mix. I think he probably he will show up because, not for nothing, it’ll be a really smart move if he does.
