Conor McGregor was blasted for a ‘disgusting’ tweet shared immediately following Jake Paul’s victory over Mike Tyson.
Paul, 27, eased to a unanimous points win over the man 31 years older than him in a fight booed by the 70,000 in attendance at the AT&T Stadium in Texas with millions more tuning in on Netflix in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 and looked every one of his 58 years, a shadow of his former destructive self as he laboured around the ring against Paul.
The former heavyweight champion also wore strapping on his knee with some of his wayward punches in the contest missing the younger man by a foot.
Boxing fans had huge concerns for Tyson heading into a fight which was branded a ‘freakshow’ by many.
Paul, now 11-1 in boxing, has been accused of cherry-picking mismatched opponents throughout his career but McGregor appeared to take the joke too far with a crass comment that was quickly deleted.
‘They are eyeing Prichard Colon for next opponent,’ McGregor wrote on X.
The story of American-Puerto Rican boxer Colon is one of the sport’s biggest tragedies. In 2015 in a fight against Terrel Williams, Colon was repeatedly punched in the back of the head, collapsing in his dressing room after the fight.
He was left in a coma for 221 days after suffering a brain haemorrhage, remaining a vegetative state with life-altering injuries. To this day, the 32-year-old receives around-the-clock care with heart-wrenching videos shared by his family on social media illustrating the tragedy that is still felt in the sport.
While it was swiftly deleted, boxing fans have hit out at McGregor’s comment.
TalkSPORT’s Michael Benson shared a screen shot of McGregor’s deleted post with more than one user labelling the former UFC champion a ‘scumbag’ for his comment.
‘Conor be saying some f****d up s**t as it is but this one is DEFINITELY high up on the list,’ another wrote.
‘He’s just cringe right now. That’s disgusting.’
Boxing names past and present queued up to slam Friday’s bout but in his post-fight interview, Tyson refused to rule out fighting again.
‘I don’t know if I’m done, it depends on the situation, Tyson said. Asked if this is the last time boxing fans will see him in the ring, he added: ‘I don’t think so. I don’t know, maybe his brother [Logan Paul] next?’