Mike Tyson says he was left with no choice but to slap Jake Paul silly at the weigh-in because he had stepped on his foot during the face-off. Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) states that he was barefoot, and Paul ran up and intentionally stepped on his foot.
Tyson wouldn’t let Paul (10-1, 7 KOs) disrespect him that way, so he knocked the taste out of his mouth with a right-hand slap. It was bad enough that Jake bear-crawled to the former heavyweight champion Tyson, which was very weird. Why do that?
It was like Paul was asking to be tagged by Tyson because he was showing contempt for the former champion with those moves. Fans think it was a 100% intentional move by Jake to see how far he could push Tyson before he reacted. He was being tested. If Jake had gotten away with that, it would have been a psychological victory for him, showing that Tyson had submitted.
Jake Provoked Mike
In a way, Jake Paul is Tyson’s boss because he’s the one who picked him, and this fight will stuff his bank account with millions. I mean, Tyson is already rich, but this will more than double his net worth.
Paul, 27, is incredibly rich, with a fortune estimated at $80 million, and that total will soar to over $100+ million after tonight’s fight against the 58-year-old Tyson. Jake is expected to get $40 million for the eight-rounder.
“I was in my socks, and he had on shoes; he stepped on my toe because he is a f***ing a***hole. I was in a lot of pain. I had to reciprocate,” said Mike Tyson to NYpost about why he slapped Jake Paul.
I’m just surprised that Mike Tyson didn’t punch Jake instead of slapping him because he could have done much worse. The old Tyson from 30 years ago wouldn’t have put up with Jake stepping on his toe while wearing hard shoes. Tyson is getting a nice little $20 million purse for tonight’s fight, so it makes sense that he didn’t want to jeopardize that payday.
Iron Mike’s net worth is estimated at $10 million. He’s spent a lot of the dough that he made during his career, and back when he was fighting, popular fighters like Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Evander Holyfield weren’t getting the giant purses that you see today for guys like Tyson Fury.
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