Footage reveals Jake Paul's distraught reaction when Mike Tyson told him he couldn't fight
The record-breaking event nearly didn't go ahead
Footage has revealed Jake Paul’s distraught reaction when Mike Tyson told him he couldn’t fight.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer was worried that the boxing champion would pull out of their fight after he made an agreement to face a late replacement.
Paul, AKA The Problem Child, was originally due to go head-to-head with Tyson in July last year, however, this was rescheduled for months later as Tyson battled health issues.
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And when the news first broke, Paul feared that the match might not go ahead at all.
New footage shows the moment Paul found out that his legendary opponent would not be able to go ahead with July’s fight.
In a trailer for the YouTuber’s upcoming TV show, Paul American, he documented his reaction to the fight being postponed.
Paul said in the clip: “Holy f***, Mike can’t fight.”
The video also showed Paul having a conversation about the possibility of fighting bare-knuckle boxer Mike Perry instead.
At the time, Paul said: “I’ve been in training camp, the date is booked, let’s see who is crazy enough to fight me on seven weeks’ notice.
“I’m taking a $60m risk, it literally has to pay off.”
Luckily for Paul, he knocked out Perry during their head-to-head, and went on to face Tyson in November 2024, five months later than initially planned.
The event was held at the AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas, in front of 80,000 fans while a record-breaking 65 million people streamed it live from all over the world on Netflix.
While Paul failed to knock out Tyson, he still came out on top and the pair reportedly pocketed $20 million each.
All three judges scored the fight for Paul, 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73.
The 27-year-old landed 78 punches from 278 thrown (28 percent), while Tyson landed just 18 punches from 97 thrown, according to Netflix.
Since then, there has been much speculation over who Paul will face next, with many names being thrown into the mix including Mexican fighter Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua.
Speaking to the New York Post, Paul said: “There’s a lot of names.
“I think Gervonta [Davis], Canelo, Tommy Fury, KSI, I want Anthony Joshua.
“The list goes on and on and on and then my main goal is to become world champion and we’ll see who that is and what point in time I make that happen.”
Paul also appeared on an episode of his brother Logan’s podcast, Impaulsive, where he added: “I want to be a world champion, that’s my goal.”