Mike Tyson gave Jake Paul a preview of what he can expect in the ring at their upcoming boxing match.
Tyson, 58, and Paul, 27, had their final weigh-in on Thursday, November 14, meeting face-to-face in footage shared via social media.
After Tyson and Paul weighed in at 228.4 and 227.2 pounds, respectively, Tyson appeared to smack Paul across the face. He was pushed back by security guards on the stage.
Paul then tapped his beard and quipped, “It’s personal now. He must die!”
Tyson has not addressed the incident, but Paul posted the footage via his Instagram page with the caption, “@miketyson is this my Chris Rock moment?” (In 2022, Will Smith slapped the comedian at the Oscars for joking about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head amid her longtime struggles with alopecia. Smith apologized to Rock before being banned from the ceremony for 10 years.)
Paul and Tyson will face off at Texas’ AT&T Stadium on Friday, November 15, which will be Tyson’s first professional fight since 2005.
In a press conference earlier this week, Tyson teased that he was “bringing the devil himself” to help secure a win. Paul, however, took a different approach to training.
“Tyson says he’s bringing darkness and the devil tomorrow. I’m bringing God,” Paul wrote via his Instagram Story on Thursday. “I’m bringing love to win this fight. All the power of the light.”
He added, “I’m channeling all the angels and all the good and truth of this world. Say a prayer for God to win tomorrow. The devil is already weak. Time to take him out.”
Earlier this week, neurology professor Dr. Nitin K. Sethi expressed concerns that Tyson could get seriously injured during the match.
“When you talk about fighters who are now above the age of 40, you worry about two things,” Sethi told CNN. “One, I worry about the fighting in the ring itself, because is that fighter more predisposed to getting a severe traumatic brain injury under my watch while in the ring because of his or her age?”
Sethi continued, “The second thing I worry about is, this is a fighter who has had many, many years of professional boxing under his or her belt. You worry about the chronic neurological injuries. The reason 40 is used as a cutoff is because there’s concern raised that when you have older fighters entering the ring or cage, they are more susceptible to either getting hurt or, for example, an older brain handles a concussion less [well] than, for example, a younger brain.”
Tyson, meanwhile, is less concerned about the inherent risks of stepping back into the ring.
“There are no feelings attached,” he said in a press conference. “My own mother should be very careful if she has to get in the ring with me. When it’s over, it’s over. But while the process is going on, my intention is to hurt him. I hope he has the same intentions, or he is in trouble.”
Tyson and Paul’s fight streams live on Netflix Friday, November 15, at 8 p.m. ET.
