Jake Paul seemingly admitted he was only trying to “hurt” Mike Tyson “a little bit” in their controversial fight, which the YouTuber won on points.
Paul, 27, beat Tyson, 58, after eight two-minute rounds, with the scorecards reading 80-72, 79-73, 79-73 in his favour. The bout was Tyson’s first professional contest since the heavyweight legend retired in 2005, though he did box Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition in 2020.
•FOLLOW LIVE: Paul vs Tyson fallout after divisive fight
During Friday’s fight, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Texas and streamed live on Netflix, Paul was accused of holding back against Tyson – or ‘pulling’ his punches.
When that was put to the YouTuber in his post-fight interview, Paul replied: “I was trying to hurt him a little bit. I was scared he was going to hurt me, I was trying to hurt him...”
Paul appeared coy as he gave the answer, while many fans streamed out of AT&T Stadium – home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Although, by that point, many fans had actually departed already.
At the post-fight press conference, Paul was again asked if he’d taken his foot off the gas in the later rounds, and he said: “Yeah, definitely, definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t need to be hurt.”
Paul also said he did not feel Tyson’s power at any point during the fight.
The result took Paul’s pro record to 11-1, with the 27-year-old having beaten numerous mixed martial arts stars and lesser-known boxers.
When asked who he will face next, Paul said, “Anyone I want [...] everyone is next on the list,” and claimed: “This is the biggest event, over 120m people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”
Netflix has not yet released viewership figures for the event.
