Money was being gambled at historic levels when Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson in what many considered a sham of a fight that featured a 58-year-old decades past his prime and a 27-year-old YouTuber with questionable motives.
Could this all be setting up for a precedent-defining lawsuit?
One sports attorney believes several factors could lead to legal action.
“It wouldn’t shock me one bit to see a lawsuit filed on this fight,” Dan Lust, a Sports Attorney at Moritt Hock & Hamrott and Law Professor at New York Law School, told The Post.
Paul fought Tyson to a snoozer of an eight-round decision win, where the former heavyweight champ appeared to be struggling to stand as many criticized Paul for carrying him to the finish.
It appeared Paul could’ve won by knockout at his convenience, as Tyson looked wobbly in the later rounds.
Paul seemingly admitted as much after the fight, telling reporters he “didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Another complicating factor is that boxers are not paid if the fight doesn’t happen.
As Tyson dealt with a litany of medical issues in the lead-up to the fight, one could argue that the fight was put on so the two could grab their cash and get out unscathed.
When asked whether he took his foot off the peddle, Paul responded, “Yeah, definitely,” and that he “wanted to give the fan’s a show.”
He was asked a follow-up question about whether he carried Tyson.
Paul responded, “Yeah a little bit. There was a point where I was like ‘OK, he’s not really engaging back.’ And so I don’t know if he is tired or hurt or whatever, and I could just tell that his age was showing a little bit and I just have so much respect for him and that violence, war thing between us … kind of went away as the rounds went on.”
The only problem with that is the fight received four times the betting interest than any other boxing match, with the fight’s most likely outcome in terms of betting odds being Paul to win by knockout (+125).
“I watched the fight very closely, lines were skewing toward knockouts … because logically it would point toward ‘Tyson is too old to take a big punch’ or ‘Jake hasn’t felt someone with Tyson’s power,’” Lust said.
Lust noted that Paul’s comments about not wanting to hurt Tyson would have been fine had he couched them to just the eighth round, since the final moments wouldn’t have put the entire fight in jeopardy.
Since he did not, Lust said that a can of worms was opened up, fueling what was already poor optics through the entire bout.
