Mike Tyson reacts to reports of $50mn Jake Paul fight

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has shrugged off reports he will meet novice Jake Paul in a $50 million Las Vegas exhibition fight.

British newspaper The Sun claimed that camps representing the pair were in “advanced talks” to get an agreement over the line.

According to a source, both fighters were “on board” and a verbal deal had already been struck with only the particulars of their contracts and the purse split to hash out.

“Mike is looking for a certain figure to get into the ring with a profit share guarantee,” the supposed insider said.

“Jake obviously has that on his mind but is keen to show the world that stepping into the ring with a man once called the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ takes his boxing career to the next level.”

According to the source, the potential fight would bridge “the gap between old school boxing fans and the new generation of followers,” with organizers hoping that it would generate as much as $50 million across the gate in the gambling capital and in pay-per-view returns.

For 55-year-old Brooklynite Tyson, however, all this is news to him.

“I saw Jake in St. Barths and he never mentioned it,” read a message on Tyson’s Twitter account, sharing The Sun’s story.

Previously, though, Tyson has indeed entertained the prospect of facing either 25-year-old Jake, who is now on 5-0, or his brother Logan who took on Floyd Mayweather in Miami last summer in another exhibition fight.

“That is the fight for the money. Those are the money-making fights, those guys got 35 million people to watch,” he said previously. 

“Yes. Hell, I would fight them. They would fight me. That would make a lot of money.

“[A] hundred million dollars, they do anything, they don’t mind getting beat up for a hundred million dollars,” quipped Tyson, who returned to action against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020.

For a fight of such magnitude, you would think that Paul would add meeting Tyson to the list of goals that the prankster tweeted on Monday evening while celebrating his 25th birthday.

He didn’t, however, but there were other sweet science-related goals such as “get better every single day and enjoy every moment doing it”, “elevate the Serrano sisters and women’s boxing”, “help as many kids as possible” through his Boxing Bullies program, “expose bully [and UFC president] Dana [White]” and help fighters in the elite MMA championship earn better pay, and lastly “go to outer space with Jeff [Bezos], Richard [Branson], or Elon [Musk]”.

Currently flirting with a switch to the octagon and the UFC’s rival promotion the PFL, it is also probable that Paul’s next showdown isn’t in the squared circle either.