Jake Paul still has every intention of fighting Mike Tyson in November despite his new fight announcement, replacing the boxing legend with ex-UFC fighter and bad boy Mike Perry for July 20.
“If Tyson wants it, I’m down,” Paul told The Post. “The keys are in his hands, and it would be such an honor to step in there with him. Mike Tyson is the one who wanted it to be a pro fight. He’s saying he’s fine, he’s saying he’s ready, and all of these things.
“We’re not Mike Tyson’s dad, we’re not his boss, and if Mike Tyson wants the fight, it would be my honor and I’m down to do it.”
Tyson, who will be 58 in July, was originally scheduled to fight Paul on July 20 at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium live on Netflix, but was forced to pull out from the bout due to a medical flare-up.
Paul went on to tell The Post that no hurdles exist between Tyson and Paul and that the boxing legend is “ready to go” for his upcoming bout.
“He’s ready to go; he just needed a couple of weeks, so he’s back to training,” Paul said of Tyson. “We’re all just praying and hoping that everything is good and he stays healthy. That’s first and foremost; he’s Mike Tyson at the end of the day. He has lethal knockout power and is very, very experienced. I think it is going to be a brawl regardless.”
The Perry fight came together as a way for Paul to stay active, he says, calling it a “warm-up” bout.
“I just want to take a risk,” Paul said. I think I am crazy for this; I definitely am because I don’t think anyone would take the risk in this position, but that’s just what makes me different. I’m not slowing down for anyone and I want to stay active in the gym.”
Paul sees an advantage in trash-talking Perry, who has had multiple run-ins with the law, including knocking out an old man in Texas outside of a restaurant while in the midst of a tantrum.
“I think those types of men are the people I like to talk s–t to the most because there’s not much there, and they get riled up really easily, and you can talk them in circles,” Paul said of Perry. “And then they like to stumble on their words, and then they freak out because all they have done their whole lives is just punch people because they are angry, so he’s actually the perfect person I like to talk s–t to.”
Perry was accused by his ex-wife Danielle Nickerson of physical abuse in 2020, saying she “feared for her life,” which included a video of the two sparring in MMA.
The MMA bad boy also spent time in prison when he was 19 for violating the terms of a sentence for armed burglary in 2011.
Perry appears to have righted his life since then, though, as he now has two children and seems to have stayed out of trouble in recent years.
He is even the middleweight champion in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and, by all accounts, is the best in the world at bare-knuckle fighting.
Paul and Perry know each other a bit, as the two had a sparring boxing session in the past, but Paul claims to have gotten the better of the MMA fighter.
“I just controlled him for five rounds,” Paul said. “He came forward a lot and had great cardio, took a lot of shots, but at the end of the day, I got the best of him.”
This will be the sixth time that Paul has fought an MMA fighter in his last 11 fights, his one loss coming against boxer and younger half-brother to legend Tyson Fury.
Paul still seems interested in stepping into the cage at some point; he signed an MMA contract with the Professional Fighters League (PFL), although no fight appears particularly close to happening for him.
“If they really want to get into the MMA s–t, we can run it,” Paul said, referring to the MMA fighters he’s brought into the boxing ring. “We have been trying to make an MMA fight happen. We tried with Nate Diaz but to no avail. So it’s been difficult to find the right opponent for that. But we’re working behind the scenes and doing promotional stuff for them, and I’ll be attending some fights soon.”
Perry was previously scheduled to box controversial MMA troll Dillon Danis, but when the opportunity with Paul popped up, Perry pulled out of that fight for the much larger payday with “The Problem Child.”
Paul stopped short of saying that there was added motivation that the ensuing collateral damage of Danis missing his fight had anything to do with selecting Perry as an opponent.
Although surely it’s an added bonus.
Danis is currently being sued by his brother, Logan Paul, and his fiancee, Nina Agdal, for “despicable” posts about Agdal on X.
