Jake Paul has blamed injury and Mike Tyson’s age for his disappointing showdown with the heavyweight legend.
Paul triumphed over 58-year-old Tyson by unanimous decision in the former undisputed world heavyweight champion’s first professional fight in 19 years. The eight-round match, held at the AT&T Stadium in Texas and streamed on Netflix, saw scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73 in favour of the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
Despite a crowd of 70k fans at the Dallas Cowboys’ home ground to witness the fight at the beginning of the night, thousands had departed before the main event concluded. Paul secured an easy win while Tyson struggled with mobility and displayed little of the renowned power that had made him a formidable force in his prime.
Tyson’s inability to put up a significant challenge led Paul to spend the final 10 seconds of the fight bowing and paying tribute to Tyson. However, following the difficult viewing and likely seeing the substantial disappointed reaction on social media, Paul maintained in his post-fight press conference that he had sustained an injury in the build-up, reports the Mirror.
He claimed: “Two weeks ago I sprained my ankle, completely tore the ligament, anterior ligament and like snapped the other side of my foot. Was on crutches for four or five days and it just hindered the end of my training camp. I don’t know how it didn’t get leaked or anything. I missed about two weeks of sparring and that’s why my cardio didn’t really feel so good tonight.”
How true that claim is will only be known by Paul and his team. He also blamed Tyson for the lack of excitement in the fight, noting: “I wanted to give the fans a show but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt. There was a point where he (Tyson) was not engaging back, I could just tell his age was showing a little bit. That violence war thing… that went away as the rounds went on.
“People just love to hate me. I intentionally say things for people to hate. That’s what I like to do. If people want to see more… give me a couple of months. I tried to give the best fight I possibly could. When someone’s just surviving in the ring, it’s hard to make it exciting. I don’t care what people have to say. It is what it is.”
In the post-fight press gatherings, Tyson’s coach, Rafael Cordeiro, maintained that they had entered the fight with the conviction that he still possessed his old spark and could secure a win. He said: “We worked for seven months for this moment. I truly believed we had this victory before the fight. He never asked to give up.
“We are really proud of Mike, the way he trained for seven months, he put his life aside for training. He’s the people’s champ. He’s inspired many people outside of the ring. The most important thing is that Mike is going back home to his loved ones.”