Mike Tyson has revealed that he would be willing to take on Jake Paul in a boxing match for an eye-watering fee of a ‘billion bucks’. The former world heavyweight champion has not fought professionally since 2005 but returned to the ring for a lucrative exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr back in 2020.
Tyson is widely regarded as one of boxing’s greatest ever fighters after spending three years as undisputed world heavyweight champion and registering a knockout-to-win ratio of 88 per cent over the course of his career. It seems doubtful that he will return to the sport in a professional capacity after celebrating his 55th birthday last year, but a fight with Paul has been touted as a potential avenue for the Brooklyn native to explore if he decides to get back in the ring once again.
YouTube star Paul, who has won each of his five professional fights to date, has spent time with Tyson on a number of recent occasions to spark rumours that a bout could potentially be arranged in the near future. However, the prospect of such a match-up appears to be unlikely based on Tyson’s insistence that a 10-figure pay packet would be required in order to agree terms.
“A billion bucks,” he replied when quizzed on how much it would take to exchange blows with Paul. “We got to get some more [money] man. S***, blue-eyed, blonde hair… that s*** is very expensive. We need to get some more money, man.”
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Paul has knocked out every opponent he has faced in the ring to date after stopping former UFC champion Tyron Woodley in his most recent outing at the end of last year. However, Tyson has previously rubbished the idea of taking on the challenge by insisting that he was not interested in facing Paul when asked back in January.
“It was all word of mouth and stuff, I don’t know,” said Tyson 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.
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“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 has admitted he is a fan of the YouTube boxing scene on a number of occasions and has previously spoken of his admiration for the work of Paul and his brother Logan, who has also fought professionally. Paul is currently taking time out of the ring to promote Amanda Serrano’s upcoming clash with Katie Taylor and is not expected to return to action until at least April.
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