Jake Paul continues his journey to seek legitimacy as a boxer with a fight scheduled for later this year. ‘The Problem Child’ will take on Mike Tyson on July 20th, 2024. In a first of its kind, the fight will be streamed for free on Netflix. The announcement came as a shock to the combat sports community, and needless to say, it was not very well received. As a matter of fact, the fight has been bashed by many fighters in the MMA community such as Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman, chiefly because of the age difference between the two fighters.
Colby Covington is not one to mince his words when asked to speak on a topic. That was the case recently when he was asked for his views on the fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. During his recent appearance on ‘SOSCAST w/ Adam Sosnick’ Colby said,
“I hate the fight. I think it takes away from Mike Tyson’s legacy when a guy like this comes in and beats him. A “YouTuber” comes in and beats the baddest man on the planet. And the most feared man. Oh come on man, he (Paul) is in his 20s. Mike still looks like a super human for 58 but he is still 58-years-old. He should not be fighting anymore. I don’t think it is safe. I think it is dangerous. At that age your heart might explode.”
In the interview, Covington also made a few other startling claims. He stated that the sparring footage released by Tyson on social media was not current, rather they were from a few years ago.
In addition, ‘Chaos’ claimed that both the Paul brothers were doing ‘every chemical known to man’ before going on to brand Jake a ‘lab project’. Finally, Covington dismissed the fight by labeling it a ‘certified circus sideshow’.
What did other MMA fighters say about Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson?
Colby Covington is not the only fighter who has voiced his opinions against the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight. The likes of Kamaru Usman, Michael Bisping, and most recently, new signee Michael ‘Venom’ Page also bashed the fight. When Tyson steps into the ring against Paul, he will be 58. Paul, on the other hand, is just 27.
To make things worse, Tyson has not competed in 4 years. On the flipside, Jake Paul has remained quite active and has competed eight times since 2020.
The common consensus among the aforementioned names is that they feel Paul will ruin the legacy Tyson has built for himself as one of the scariest men to ever step foot in a boxing ring. However, the criticism does not seem to faze Jake Paul who continues to promote and defend the fight on his social media platforms.
