Floyd Mayweather weighed in on the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight ahead of the November 15 event at AT&T Stadium in Texas.
Mayweather, who began the modern-day notion of non-boxers facing professionals against UFC star Conor McGregor in 2017, refused to knock the fight. The five-weight world champion went as far as defending Paul and Tyson, alongside praising the YouTuber for his forward-thinking.
The Mayweather Promotions entrepreneur is no stranger to controversy surrounding his exhibition fights. Mayweather event called his intended whistle-stop schedule for 2023/24 ‘The Heist Tour’ after stating he was taking money from the bank of boxing as he pleased.
That tour failed to materialize without explanation as Mayweather readies to face John Gotti III for the second time in just over a year this August. Mayweather says nobody can doubt Paul for his ability to make money.
“What he’s doing [against Mike Tyson] is kind of cool. If he can continue to steal money, and they match him the way they match him, I can’t knock his hustle,” Mayweather told the ‘It Is What It Is’ Podcast when asked about Paul vs Tyson.
Given that Tyson postponed the fight for four months due to a stomach ulcer and is 58 years old, Paul has worked wonders selling that kind of an event to anyone. When revealing his secrets before a previous fight, the influencer urged professional fighters to promote themselves if they wanted to duplicate his monetary success.
“We live in a different boxing world now, in a different digital age in general, and it’s the fighters’ responsibility now to promote themselves. And once they realize that, and realize instead of sitting around on the weekend and playing video games in between the training sessions, they have to be on TikTok and making YouTube videos and getting out there and going on interviews and podcasts and getting any opportunity they can to grow their name.
“That’s why I would just encourage everybody else. The promoter is dying. It’s now the responsibility of the fighter. That’s the new boxing world. Just hustle, man. Just hustle.”
That word again, ‘hustle,’ comes into play. However, the one thing aspiring boxing pros who aim for a respected career would never do is compile the kind of record Paul currently holds. That’s where the long-standing issue lies.
But when he looks at his bank balance and future guarantees for fighting retired MMA fighters and old pensioner legends, Paul probably won’t consider it for a second.
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
