YouTube star-turned-fighter Jake Paul is set to face-off against boxing legend Mike Tyson in November, despite there being a staggering 31-year age gap between the duo
Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will meet in the ring later this year
KSI has branded boxing rival Jake Paul’s decision to fight a 58-year-old Mike Tyson ‘disgusting’.
Paul, the YouTube star who began boxing professionally in 2020, will face-off against a legend of the sport in Tyson later this year. The pair had been due to fight in July before Tyson suffered an ulcer flare-up.
Their bout has been rescheduled for November 15 in Arlington, Texas, but KSI doesn’t see the event happening because of the whopping 31-year age gap between Paul, who’s 27, and veteran Tyson. In an exclusive interview with Mirror Fighting, KSI claimed that his rvial was ‘trying to take advantage’ of Tyson.
“I find the whole thing cringe… I just don’t buy the whole event,” KSI, known in the offline world as Olajide ‘JJ’ Olatunji, said. “I don’t think the event is going to happen at all.
“I think Mike Tyson is just too old. You know, boxing is a young man’s game and I feel like once you hit about 40, 40-something is when you start to really decline. I just think that it’s a complete mismatch and Jake is trying to take advantage of a very old Mike Tyson and I think it’s disgusting.”
Tyson, who hasn’t fought since 2020 when he faced Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition match, has previously hit back at suggestions that he’s too old to fight Paul, claiming that his critics are ‘jealous’. KSI believes that the former undisputed heavyweight champion is about to face ‘reality’, explaining: “It’s just Mike Tyson’s mindset.
“He still feels like he’s that 19-year-old killer but in reality he’s not and Jake Paul is just trying to take advantage of him. But I mean, we’re used to Jake Paul fighting old people, so it is what it is.”
The pair were originally scheduled to face-off in July (Image: John Nacion/Getty Images)
KSI – who also rose to prominence on YouTube – has long been tipped to fight Paul himself, having called him out in 2018 after winning his first boxing match against another online content creator, Joe Weller. Currently, KSI is recovering from a hand injury which has ruled him out of the upcoming Misfits Boxing event in Dublin next weekend.
The Watford-raised star, who’s also a music artist, was due to face Slim Albaher and MMA veteran Anthony Taylor in a 2v1 tag-team match. He’ll instead be performing a concert at the sold-out event.
Paul and Tyson, meanwhile, met for an ill-tempered face-off on Sunday in New York and Paul claimed on stage: “I’m here to make $40million (£31m) and knock out a legend I don’t give a f*** about anything else, he’s the one who wanted it to be a pro fight and he’s going to get his ass knocked out for real.”
Tyson responded by saying: “Hey, listen, as soon as I catch this guy, it’s over. Jake Paul is going to be running around the ring, but as soon as I catch this guy, it’s going to be totally over.”
