Mike Tyson has explained he would have fought Jake Paul when he was active two years ago but is longer interested in staging a clash.
The legendary heavyweight has spoken about potentially facing a YouTube star and was reported initially to have agreed a deal to face Jake's brother Logan.
After that fight was dismissed, it was recently reported that Tyson had verbally agreed a deal with Paul to stage an exhibition clash this year which he swiftly moved to deny.
Tyson has now claimed it could have happened when the pair fought on the same card in 2020 headlined by his exhibition with Roy Jones Jr.
“It was all word of mouth and stuff, I don’t know," Tyson said on an episode of the FULL SEND podcast.
“I’m not even interested in doing this stuff. It’s fun. If it was back when I first started, yes, and we were both fighting on the same card, we were both active, yeah I would do it. But it’s just turned out bad, it’s not going to turn out right.
"Every 12 or 13 months there is something missing like boom I'm losing muscle mass. I wanted to do it the first time just for fun, other people took it to the financial level and I didn't enjoy it anymore."
Tyson had previously announced that he was making a return to the ring in February this year over a year on from his exhibition against Jones Jr.
His previous exhibition against his former rival generated huge interest which led to calls for further exhibitions against the Paul brothers.
Paul is currently taking time out of the ring to promoter client Amanda Serrano's historic clash with Katie Taylor and is not expected to return until after their scheduled April date.
He generated over £30 million in a huge year in the sport defeating Ben Askren before beating former UFC champion Tyron Woodley twice.
Would you have liked to see Jake Pau face Mike Tyson? Let us know in the comments section below
Tyson has admitted he is a fan of the YouTube boxing scene in the past and has spoken of his admiration for the work of the Paul twins.
Despite previous claims he would be willing to step in a ring with Paul, Tyson admitted he could not knock out the YouTuber due to the love from his family.
"My family love Jake Paul," Tyson admitted.
"So f***ing easy [to knock him out]. Yeah, but I would never. I'd be against my own f***** family. They love this little white motherf*****. You know what I mean?
"He got balls. He's got f****** balls. When you see a white boy with balls, you know. I'm talking about for real, but f*** you motherf*****... Yeah but nah man, let him have his f****** reign."
