See William Shatner Getting Punched By Mike Tyson
See what it looks like when William Shatner and Mike Tyson step into the ring and the latter delivers a blow to the former's head
This article is more than 2 years old
William Shatner has always appeared as one of the most confident actors we’ve ever had on screen. Whether it’s iconic turns in the Star Trek franchise or even playing a law practice partner, basically everything he’s ever done exudes a certain suave conviction, a cool self-assurance that’s taken him far in his career. So you can kind of imagine that the guy is up for almost anything, believing nothing can really shake his ego all that much. And that would include a punch from one of the greatest and most powerful boxers of all time.
In a recent commercial, we see William Shatner and Mike Tyson in a boxing ring doing some light sparring. It’s mostly slow-motion stuff, with the aging but still, formidable Tyson clearly taking it easy on the now elderly Shatner. That is until Shatner insists that Tyson take a clean shot. Wanting to feel what it’s like to catch one from maybe the greatest boxer who ever lived (and if not, we are just splitting hairs at this point), Shatner begs Tyson to really give him one. Here, check out the video:
Now, did William Shatner really take a full-on punch from Mike Tyson here? Of course not. This is a commercial for Copper Gel, a topical pain relief cream that’s meant to, in this case, be the relief Shatner would have needed after taking a right hook across the jaw. The reality? Though Mike Tyson is getting up there in age, 55 years old in fact, even a halfway punch by the boxing legend would have been close enough to kill a guy like William Shatner. The latter is 90 years old at this point. Though he still has some youth to him, even if he’s lost a step or ten, there’s no way even a regular human being could withstand a punch from a retired boxer. It would be lights out time.
The William Shatner and Mike Tyson commercial does have the humor mostly down though. It’s funny watching these two former dynamos (one on the screen, one in the ring) do some later-years sparring in the ring even if it’s put on for a commercial. There might have actually been a time in Shatner’s life when the confidence was such that he believed even a blow like this wouldn’t have cracked the celebrity veneer. That’s just how confident this guy’s appeared in the past.
Pushing into his ninth decade, William Shatner is taking work with the same consistency he once did. Can you blame him? What do you think you’ll be doing at 90? Rest assured it won’t be getting into a ring to get fake-punched by Mike Tyson. So we can probably start and stop there. But he’s appearing in things from time to time recently having jumped into another ring with some WWE hijinks for Wrestlemania 37. And he’s also set to appear in the series The Elevator. Or if you just want to catch up on some of his previous work, Boston Legal is streaming totally free online right now.
Still kicking around some laughs at 90 years old is nothing to geriatric-ally sneeze at. William Shatner can still deliver the lines, the timing and even have some fun in front of the camera. Did he really catch one from Mike Tyson? Of course not. But he might even believe he did and that’s believable enough.
