Jake Paul thinks Conor McGregor’s criticism of his fight with Mike Tyson is out of jealousy.
YouTuber-turned-pro boxer Paul (9-1) takes on boxing legend Tyson (50-6) on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The event will stream live on Netflix.
McGregor called Paul’s fight with Tyson “a bit strange,” and said the interest is low. Paul thinks otherwise, claiming the numbers on social media have been booming, and have far surpassed McGregor’s announcement that he’s fighting Michael Chandler on June 29.
“So, Conor, you’re saying that interest is low for the fight but the last fight you announced, there was 1,000 articles written in a multiple-day span, people talking about your last fight,” Paul said on his B/S with Jake Paul podcast. “In that same multiple-day span, there was 10,000 articles written about (Paul vs. Tyson).
“No fight ever has done these numbers in terms of faceoff views, Instagram reels. Just on our main pages alone, it’s like 50, 60 million Instagram views on both of our posts – not to mention every single other sports page posting it. That’s never happened in the history of the sport to reach those numbers. So this is, in my mind, the biggest fight the world will ever see.”
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Paul says fighting such a famous and accomplished figure like Tyson will only help grow boxing.
“There’s no reason for them to be jealous,” Paul said. “I get that people are jealous, but this is helping the sport of boxing. Isn’t that what people should want to see – getting more kids into the gyms, spanning two generations together, doing it on the biggest scale possible? When the old heads like Conor are still trying to hate, why are you trying to pull people down? Your ego is that (big)?”
While his fight with Tyson will be free for all Netflix subscribers, Paul says more people will watch it than McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather, which holds the record for second most boxing pay-per-view buys of all time.
“It’ll be more viewed, 1,000 percent – for sure more viewed,” Paul said. “Obviously, it’ll be free (for subscribers), so we can’t compare pay-per-view numbers.”
For more on the fight, visit MMA Junkie’s hub for Paul vs. Tyson.
