Mike Tyson admits his wife pleaded for him not to fight Jake Paul.
The 58-year-old boxing legend will dust off his gloves to face YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, who is 31 years his junior, this Friday at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A whopping 500million fans could tune in to watch the live stream on Netflix, meaning it could be one of the most-watched sports events in history.
Paul has proudly boasted he could pocket a hefty £31million from the bout, while it is still unclear just how much ‘Iron Mike’ will earn. Yet Tyson is not concerned about the money at all, insisting that his earnings won’t be life-changing.
The former undisputed world heavyweight champion retired 19 years ago, with his last professional victory coming against Clifford Etienne all the way back in 2003. And he has now admitted his wife told him he does not need to fight ‘El Gallo’.
Talking to SPORTbible, the Brooklyn-born icon said: “This fight is not going to change my life financially. If I did it for free, it’s not going to change my life.
“My wife is constantly telling me, ‘You do not need to do this fight’. This is what I want to do, this is me. I’m seeking my glory.”
Paul has contradicted Tyson’s claim, however. The controversial social media star says the showdown will bring Tyson his largest pay-day yet, potentially around £31m.
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He said in a separate interview with the same publication: “There are definitely certain guaranteed figures and other certain built-in bonuses and stuff on top of sales – key performance indicators that trigger certain things. This is definitely my biggest payday, of all the fights for sure. It is definitely a healthy payday.”
The pair were initially scheduled to face off on July 20 this year. However, the bout was postponed when Tyson suffered an ulcer during a flight.
He later explained that it resulted in him “coughing up blood”. Now fully recovered and raring to step into the ring, Tyson has made it clear that his intention is to inflict pain on Paul in Texas.
“My intentions are to hurt Jake Paul. Those are my intentions. I’m very serious about this,” he said on his podcast. “It’s just who I am. This right here is glory. Selling out a 90,000 seat stadium, the whole world is just focusing on this particular situation right now. That’s glory to me. My name is in everybody’s mouth right now.”