While heavily controversial, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson’s fight is still the talking point of the boxing community. As the Youtuber-turned-boxer became one of the most sought-after rivals, many big names of the sport have slammed the spectacle. The latest to join the list is Lennox Lewis.
The former undisputed world heavyweight champion compared the Paul-Tyson fight, which was viewed on Netflix by 60 million people around the world, has nothing to do with the upcoming rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh.
“At the end of the day you’ve got a big event that a lot of people were happy to attend, and they felt OK. The boxing purist didn’t feel OK, they didn’t feel it was the right thing to do,” he said, according to The Herald Scotland.
“Then you’ve got the real event which is the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, where the two best fighters in the world actually meet and box and we can actually see who is the best out of the two, and who is the king of heavyweight boxing at the moment,” he added about the Fury-Usyk fight, which will take place on December 21st.
He added, “That type of boxing doesn’t tarnish great boxing such as Usyk and Fury, because you’ve got two different types of eras and things going on. You’ve got entertainment, and you’ve got real good fighting with drama.”
Tommy Fury challenged Jake Paul, Paul called him a ‘muppet’
While Jake Paul has officially retired from “influencer boxing” to be professional, Tommy Fury joined a long-list of boxers who called him out. Fury beat Paul in a split decision in 2023, but now he responded to Logan Paul’s podcast comments, in which he said that he was “scared” for a rematch.
“I beat you once already, I handed you your first loss. The minute you stepped up and fought a real boxer, you lost fair and square. I can give you a second loss, that’s not a problem, but let’s talk some serious numbers. If you want to get in touch, you know where I am,” Fury recently said in a video on his social media.
Paul fired back on X (formerly Twitter), dismissing Fury’s callout and questioning his credibility. “What an absolute muppet. Buddy, you just pulled out of a fight for the 3rd time. You have ZERO credibility. I offered you $8M dollars and you ran away from it. And now you got dumped by Molly, getting sued by DAZN and still can’t call a shot without your dad GTFOH,” Paul wrote.
If Paul and Fury’s rematch isn’t actually in the cards, Paul has plenty of offers from other boxers to continue his career. The “Problem Child” has been called out by Artur Bierberv, Daniel Dubois, Gervonta Davis, and even Ryan Garica.