- The Washington Times - Friday, October 11, 2024

Mike Tyson could make an extra $5 million if he goes more than four rounds against YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul.  

In a video posted Tuesday by the Betr sports media and sportsbook company he co-founded, Paul proposed an extra wager for the bout, slated to stream live on Netflix on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

“Mikey, Mikey! If you can last more than four rounds with me, I’ll give you an extra $5 million,” Paul said in a video, piling stacks of $100 bills on his torso, “but if you don’t, then you have to get a tattoo that says, ‘I love Jake Paul.’”

Tyson, who earned the tag “Baddest Man on the Planet” by dominating boxing’s heavyweight division in the 1980s, isn’t buying it.

“He should offer more,’’ he told USA Today on Thursday. A number? “Tell him probably about 20 (million).”

But Tyson doesn’t expect the fight to go the distance. He indicated in a press conference Thursday that he should win in less than four rounds.

“If I don’t have to catch him, you can expect a Round 1 knockout,” Tyson said, according to ESPN. “But I may have to catch him because I anticipate this guy running from me.”

The two were originally scheduled to fight on July 20 but had to reschedule after the 58-year-old Tyson had an ulcer flare-up and was ordered by his doctors to move the bout, according to Netflix.

Neither Tyson nor his representatives have publicly indicated whether Tyson will take Paul’s wager. As opposed to Tyson’s exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, which was declared a draw, the November bout has been sanctioned as a professional boxing match by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, according to ESPN.

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul signed on to fight each other with the desire to do so in a sanctioned professional fight that would have a definitive outcome,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder with Paul of Most Valuable Promotions, told ESPN.

Tyson last won a fight in 2003 and last fought professionally in 2005. After the reschedule, Paul, 27, pivoted and fought former UFC competitor Mike Perry in Tampa, Florida.

Paul won the July bout by technical knockout.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.

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