NFL Hall of Fame member Michael Irvin called the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match a “lie” that had no intentions of being a real fight.
The former Dallas Cowboy sat in the second row of the Netflix-promoted event and said that in his opinion, Tyson was holding back and didn’t deliver his signature uppercuts on purpose.
“That fight was a lie,” Irvin claimed. “Everybody’s lying. … They had no intentions to really strap it on. If you look through that, I didn’t see one patented uppercut by Mike Tyson. What did Mike Tyson win on? Uppercut.”
Irvin told the hosts of the “It Is What It Is” podcast that he had heard that Tyson agreed to a contract stipulating he couldn’t hit Paul in the body and then follow it with an uppercut.
“Then I heard some people talking about they couldn’t put that in the contract. He couldn’t body and then uppercut. Like, how can you put that in a fight contract?” Irvin said.
The confusing points perplexed host Mason Betha, also known as the rapper Mase, who often smiled or simply said, “Hmm …,” throughout Irvin’s theory.
“Mike, how do you know that wasn’t in the contract?” Betha said, bursting into laughter.
“No, it was in the contract!” Irvin replied.
“Who’s your resource?” Betha continued, “Cite your source,” he laughed.
“You got all these people out here, and [Tyson] couldn’t body him and do that patented uppercut. Mike Tyson is not Mike Tyson anyway, and now you’re taking away Mike Tyson’s best gift, which is that uppercut. Man, that’s a big lie to me.”
‘If they take that away, you ain’t that dude anymore.’
Irvin then compared taking away Tyson’s uppercut to his football days, saying that if he was forced to play a game without running a slant or deep out route, he wouldn’t be able to play at his best.
“If they take that away, you ain’t that dude anymore, and they took that away,” Irvin added.
Co-host Cam’ron Giles, who simply goes by Cam’ron, said his interpretation of the fight was that Tyson was getting beaten so badly he didn’t want to watch it anymore.
“I walked out around round four,” Cam’ron said, saying he was trying to avoid seeing Tyson get knocked out. “I just went to my car and smoked.”
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images for Netflix © 2024
Irvin, however, had another theory up his sleeve.
“Somebody asked Mike why he kept biting his glove,” the former wide receiver began. “I think he was trying not to kill the dude. That’s what crazy people do,” Irvin claimed.
“It’s a tick … he never threw the uppercut.”
Irvin has seemingly already been disproven on this topic, though. Not only did Netflix announcer Mauro Ranallo cite during the broadcast that Tyson has a history of biting his glove, Tyson also claimed after the fight that he has a “biting fixation.”
The latter is a hilarious reference to when he bit boxer Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997.
At the same time, there exists video evidence of Tyson doing the same glove bite as far back as at least 2020 against Roy Jones Jr. However, one could allege the same claim as Irvin about that fight, since that fight was an exhibition, as well.
“I’m happy he got every dime, or whatever it is. I want him to get his money. I just wanted him to free the beast,” Irvin concluded.
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Fearless, Michael irvin, Netflix, Boxing, Jake paul, Mike tyson, Sports
