Mike Tyson sounds off on 'jealous' athletes criticizing Jake Paul fight

Mike Tyson scoffs at any criticism surrounding his boxing match against Jake Paul.

Tyson (50-6) will be 58 when he takes on YouTuber-turned-pro boxer Paul (9-1) on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The event will stream live on Netflix.

Many pundits and professional athletes expressed their concern over Tyson boxing someone 30 years younger, but Tyson boasts that he’s a bigger draw than most of the active boxers.

“I’m 58 and what? I’m getting billions of views from just talking to somebody from fighting.” Tyson said in an interview with Reuters. “Everybody, even most of the athletes, they’re jealous. That’s whack. ‘He’s 58, he’s 57.’ I say in your prime, you couldn’t draw a million people, man. What are you talking? You couldn’t sell out an arena. Who, at 58, could sell out an 80,000-seat arena?”

Paul’s past two wins came against relatively unknown professional boxers. UFC CEO Dana White suggested Paul needs Tyson to sell, and Tyson echoes that same sentiment.

“Why you think he wants to fight me and not anybody else? Everybody wants to fight him. All the boxers want to fight him,” Tyson said. “But if he fought them, the only people that will come are the people that like him. The other guys, their parents might not even come watch them. That’s just keeping it real. They’re too boring for their children to watch. It’s like watching grass grow.”

For more on the fight, visit MMA Junkie’s hub for Paul vs. Tyson.