Written by Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
It turns out Jake Paul really didn’t want to hurt Mike Tyson after all.
Despite a whole lot of pre-fight trash talk and an altercation at the weigh-ins where Tyson slapped Paul across the face, the 27-year-old social influencer turned boxer wasn’t trying to harm an all-time legend. Now that’s not to say Paul didn’t want to finish the fight but as the bout moved into the later rounds, he couldn’t help but realize that Tyson shifted into survival mode and he just couldn’t force himself to go for the knockout.
“Yeah definitely [took my foot off the gas],” Paul said at the post-fight press conference. “Definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
While Tyson actually came out aggressive to start the fight, he slowed down rather dramatically after the first couple of rounds. He also seemed to be favoring his knee, which was wrapped up with a brace throughout the fight.
By the time the fight was into the seventh and eighth rounds, Paul was still largely fresh enough to dish out some damage but he didn’t necessarily want to create a lasting image of putting down somebody he held in such high regard.
“[I carried him] a little bit,” Paul said. “There was a point where I was just like he’s not really engaging back and I don’t know if he’s tired or whatever. I could just tell his age was showing a little bit.
“I just have so much respect for him and that violence/war thing between us, after he slapped me I wanted to be aggressive and take him down and knock him out and all that stuff but that kind of went away as the rounds went on.”
Of course, Paul also took responsibility for some of the lackluster moments in the fight after revealing that he actually suffered an injury of his own a few weeks out from his scheduled matchup against Tyson.
Paul suffered a sprained ankle with a torn ligament during his training camp that left him on crutches for several days.
“It just made everything mentally more difficult to go into the ring with a sprained ankle, having to tape it up,” Paul explained. “I missed about two weeks of sparring. So I really only sparred one or two times before this fight so that’s why my cardio didn’t feel as good in there tonight.”
While viewership figures aren’t available yet, Paul expects huge returns once all the final numbers are tallied and that makes his fight against Tyson a massive success.
As much as he understands that everybody is going to have an opinion about the fight, Paul could only do so much without a willing dance partner to engage with him.
“I tried to give the best fight I possibly could,” Paul said. “When someone’s just surviving in the ring, basically, it’s hard to make it exciting. I couldn’t really get him to engage me or slip shots and do something super cool or whatever.
“I don’t care what people have to say. They’re always going to have something to say and it is what it is.”