A friend of Mike Tyson has revealed the reason the legendary heavyweight boxer slapped Jake Paul at the weigh-in ahead of their fight on Friday night.
Paul and Tyson hit the scales hit the scales on Thursday in their final meeting before the pair face off in the ring at the AT&T Stadium in Texas.
They met in the customary face-off after the weigh in, with Tyson shocking onlookers by slapping the YouTuber.
Tyson’s former training partner turned politician Tom Patti has now revealed the reason why the 58-year-old lashed out at Paul.
He claimed Tyson was retaliating after YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul had stepped on his foot after lunging towards him.
‘Jake stepped on Mike’s foot, that prompted the reaction,’ Tom Patti, one of Tyson’s longtime friends, told USA Today.
Mike Tyson had stunned fans by slapping Jake Paul after their weigh in on Thursday night
Tyson’s friend claimed the boxer had retaliated after Paul had stepped on his right foot
‘I was there and Mike just told me.
‘My personal opinion (is) Jake shows enough disrespect that he starts crawling up to Mike and then pouncing in front of him… like some sort of lurching animal.
‘Mike put him in his place.’
Footage appears to back up Patti’s comments with Paul, who was wearing trainers, seen landing on the top of Tyson’s right foot ahead of the confrontation.
Paul seemed relatively unfazed by the strike as Tyson was restrained and gave little comment before leaving the stage. That gave Paul an opportunity on the microphone to send his final message.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on stage, Paul said: ‘Mike Tyson, that was a cute slap buddy but tomorrow you’re getting knocked the f*** out.
‘I’m f***ing him up, I’m f***ing him up! He hits like a b***h. It’s personal now, it’s personal now!’
In a chilling end, he uttered a three-word message of: ‘He must die!’
Paul was accused of ‘disrespect’ and being a ‘lurching animal’ by crawling up to Tyson
Paul seemed relatively unfazed by the strike as Tyson was restrained before leaving stage
Tyson and Paul had hit the scales just 24 hours before they will meet in the ring in Texas
Just moments earlier, Tyson had outweighed Paul by just over a pound. Having previously operated as a cruiserweight, Paul has bulked up to take on Tyson and weighed in at 227.2lbs.
Tyson then stepped up wearing Versace pants and looked in incredible condition, especially considering he turned 58 in July, as he tipped the scales at 228.4lbs.
A day earlier, Paul, Tyson and their undercard cast starred in a press conference at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas.
Tyson is 19 years removed from his last sanctioned professional fight despite competing in an exhibition with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.
