Boxing legend Mike Tyson is turning up the heat on critics ahead of his fight with infamous boxing phenom Jake Paul.
Tyson and Paul will participate in Netflix’s first live boxing event on July 20, 2024, with the pair taking criticism for their age difference. Tyson is 58 while Paul is 27, leaving critics to question why the fight is even taking place.
In response, “Iron Mike” has sounded like his younger, ferocious self as rumors have circulated online about the possibility of the combatants using headgear and bigger gloves.
“Not true,” Tyson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “This is called an exhibition, but if you look up exhibition you will not see any of those. … This is a fight.”
Tyson also gave fiery responses about his ability to draw fans and took shots at naysayers in an interview with Reuters.
“I’m 58 and what? I’m getting billions of views from just talking to somebody about fighting,” he stated. “Everybody, even most of the athletes, they’re jealous, that’s wack. … I say ‘in your prime you couldn’t draw a million people, man. What are you talking about, you couldn’t sell out [an] arena.’ Who at 58 could sell out an 80,000-seat arena?”
The boxer was referring to the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the fight will take place.
“Everybody wants to fight him; all the boxers want to fight him,” Tyson said of his opponent. “But if he fought them, the only people that will come are the people that like him. The other guys, their parents might not even come watch them. That’s just keeping it real. They’re too boring for their children to watch; it’s like watching grass grow,” he told the news outlet.
‘In reality I’m invincible.’
Tyson’s fervent comments about the fight have only multiplied in recent interviews, as he increasingly has seemed to shift his mindset. In 2019, Tyson told Joe Rogan that even working out could “reactivate” his old ego. The former heavyweight champion described that any recognition of “greatness” in himself would make him yearn for competition.
This became apparent in his interview with Hannity.
“I don’t think he’s faster than me,” the 58-year-old said of Paul. “I train every day. I take it seriously. The process goes through the whole day, I go to the gym and go to the strength and conditioning guy, and I start all over again.”
When asked what his motivation to fight was, Tyson explained that it was about fear and glory and never about money.
“You know, Sean, I have a weird personality, but I don’t think it’s weird, though. Whatever I’m afraid to do, I do it, and that’s how it is. I was a hundred pounds overweight and I was 53 years old, and I said ‘let’s do it,'” Tyson said about his last fight. “Anything I’m afraid of, I confront. Nuts, my personality.”
“Right now I’m scared to death, but as the fight gets closer, the less nervous I become, because it’s reality, and in reality I’m invincible,” he declared.
‘Hotboxin”
The fighter predicted that he would be “irritable and nasty” leading into his fight with Paul but admitted he didn’t have any ill will toward the younger man.
“I don’t dislike him, and I don’t have no grudges against him, and it’s not from that perspective. But this is from my point of view of grabbing glory. Never for money, only glory, and I would never risk my health for money.”
Tyson told Hannity he would forgo smoking marijuana ahead of the fight, which he typically has admitted makes him a more calm and rational person. The fighter even sells marijuana products and had a podcast called “Hotboxin‘.”
However, since the fight’s announcement Tyson has told fans that he has closed the chapter on the podcasting portion of his life.
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