Anyone who knows me will back me up when I say I am not a person who gives much stock to conspiracy theories.

The moon landings weren’t faked, Elvis isn’t alive, the earth isn’t flat, the CIA didn’t order JFK’s murder and Princess Diana’s death was nothing more than a tragic accident fuelled by booze, speed and paparazzi.

Sport conspiracy theories are generally even more ludicrous, like, for example, the one that suggests the ‘original’ Ronaldo was forced by Nike to play the 1998 World Cup final despite having a pre-match seizure.

There is, however, one conspiracy theory currently doing the rounds, and you are going to have your work cut out if you want to persuade me it isn’t true – that the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul boxing match was fixed.

I was one of the tens of millions of people (idiots) who stayed up most of the night to watch the fight, fuelled by a desire to see Tyson roll back the years and prove that there is life after 50.

And the fact that he would be doing so by giving a social media star a public pummelling was undeniably a bonus. He could start with Paul, then maybe move on to the rest of the influencer world.

However, what unfolded was an anticlimax of immense proportions that made me assume that, contrary to the pre-match hype, Tyson was simply not up to the task anymore, a burnt-out husk of the insanely good boxer from four decades ago.

And at first, I was prepared to leave it at that.

But since the fight – and I use the ‘f’ word in the loosest possible sense – the internet has been full of people claiming the match was fixed from the word go. Initially I dismissed these rumours as nothing more than people looking for ways to create doubt and boost their socials.

You could actually see Tyson holding back the punches

Then I started watching the more intelligent sounding videos and saw that, in slow motion, you could actually see Tyson holding back the punches despite having opportunity after opportunity to do some damage to his opponent.

There is one clear clip where Tyson dodges a Paul punch that leaves the YouTuber totally exposed. Tyson pulls back his arm to take a swing but, and you can see it in his eyes, he pulls out of the punch at the last moment.

Now it could well be that the former undisputed world champion is genuinely past it. At 58, maybe he doesn’t see the opportunities as clearly as he once did. Maybe his reflexes are not as sharp as they once were.

Maybe.

But much more likely, as the conspiratory cohorts are claiming, Tyson was told his $20 million purse was dependent on the fight going the full distance. And the only realistic way he could ensure that happened was to stop throwing punches. So that’s what he did, from the second round onwards.

At the end of the day, only a handful of people will ever know the truth. The two boxers, of course, and maybe a few people at the promotion company.

Either way, Netflix can’t have been impressed. This was their first foray into live sports events and they would have wanted to start with a bang to show the world they could be a serious player in the sector. What they wouldn’t have wanted was 16 minutes of watching a hairy, tattooed twentysomething chasing an old man round a small square patch of canvas. All sent out on a very, very doggy stream.

Even now, there is a small part of me that still believes this was just an unfortunate mismatch. But then I think back to all the videos I watched of Tyson training and preparing for this bout when he looked lithe and lethal.

That just wasn’t the same person who walked into the ring last weekend.

As I said at the outset, conspiracy theories aren’t my thing. But once in a while, when everything points in that direction, you simply have to make an exception and go with your instincts.

And my instincts are telling me this fight was fixed.

The more Pep the merrier

Football can be weird sometimes.

You lose four games on the spin for the first time in your managerial career and how do your employers respond? By extending your contract with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their eye.

That’s like walking into work the day after accidentally reversing the company van into the sea to be greeted with open arms, a promotion and a pay rise.

Obviously, I jest.

Pep Guardiola may be on his worst ever run as a coach, but one suspects the 18 trophies he has already won for Manchester City go some way towards mitigating this barren patch.

As football news goes, this is going to make a lot of people happy: City’s fans, owners, players, and of course, the man himself.

There will be a few people upset by the news of course – namely the other 19 managers in the Premier League...

A break from the breaks

What’s that you say? No more international breaks until March?

Praise the Lord!

I’m all for a little country-on-country action, but the way it interferes with domestic football every few weeks between September and November is just nuts.

And for what? The Nations League?

You can pretend this new-fangled competition is important if you like, dress it up as some sort of life-and-death, European mega-tournament.

But proper football fans know it is little more than the international version of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

If you win it, that’s okay. If it were to spontaneously combust and cease to exist, that would be okay too.

Possibly better.

E-mail: James.calvert@timesofmalta.com

X: @maltablade