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Jake Paul returns to the ring this weekend for the first time since he defeated legendary boxer Mike Tyson in a sanctioned fight last November, but the YouTuber-turned-fighter continues to face scrutiny over his choice of opponents.
That criticism came to a head during Paul’s appearance on the “Piers Morgan Uncensored” show on Thursday when Morgan criticized Paul for his boxing match against the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, which he called in an earlier segment “sickening.”
“It’s entertainment, man. If Mike Tyson wants to fight you, of course you’re going to say yes,” Paul, who was promoting his fight on Saturday against former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., said.
“He walked away with tens of millions of dollars to support his family for the rest of their lives, and we made the biggest fight in history. So 128 million people would disagree with you that it wasn’t something amazing.”
Morgan commended Paul from a business standpoint, but questioned the validity of Paul’s career for choosing fighters beyond their prime.
“As a businessman, you are brilliant. I give you full credit for that. When you took on Mike Tyson – as a business enterprise, there’s no argument, you absolutely crushed the numbers, crushed the money and everything else. But the idea that you can say on the one hand, ‘I’m a killer, I get in the ring with the best people,’ and you get in the ring with a guy who’s literally nearly as old as me.”
Paul disagreed, adding that the failed talks with Canelo Alvarez, the current undisputed super middleweight champion, was not for a lack of effort.
“I don’t know what you guys want to see. I tried to fight Canelo, he ducked out of it. You asked him about that. You said he’s going to kill me, so what do you want, Piers?
“You’re the problem here with this whole situation and criticism of my career. I’m trying to fight the best people,” he continued. “You can sit there and make up s—, but you don’t know your facts. I’ve fought multiple boxers with professional records, including Mike Tyson himself.”
The discussion ramped up when Morgan claimed that Paul would not have survived a fight against Iron Mike in his prime, prompting the social media star to launch a personal attack at the host.
“And you versus going to the gym, you’re still a fat a–,” he quipped. “We can make up hypotheticals. You should go to the gym.”
“I think the problem here, Piers, is that you think that your opinion matters,” he continued, but was quickly interrupted by Morgan who asked why he would appear on his show then.
“I’m just taking your audience to sell pay-per-views. I don’t give a f— about your show, you dumba–. This is a f—ing business enterprise,” Paul said before quickly ending the video call.
Paul will fight Chavez, 39, in Anaheim, California, on Saturday night. Chavez last fought in 2021 and is more than a decade removed from his title run.
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