'He's trying to fight an OAP'… Jake Paul slammed over controversial Mike Tyson fight by long-time rival KSI
27/08/2024 13:16
Jake Paul’s greatest rival KSI believes that he shouldn’t be pursuing his controversial November fight with Mike Tyson.
The social media stars have been feuding since 2018, when the Brit called out both Jake and his brother Logan Paul for a boxing match. Ultimately, Jake decided to fight KSI’s younger brother Deji while Logan fought the elder sibling in a massive pay-per-view white collar boxing event.
This led to professional careers for both, with KSI ultimately beating Logan while Jake defeated Deji. However, they have never been able to settle their feud fully, with fight talks regularly breaking down between both sides.
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KSI believes Jake Paul should not be fighting Mike Tyson
With KSI set to promote a major Misfits Boxing pay-per-view this weekend in Dublin, he has been doing the media rounds. He was due to fight on Saturday night against former Bellator star Anthony Taylor and unbeaten YouTube boxer Slim Albaher, but was forced out with injury.
Instead, he will perform a concert with some of his hit songs, which will feature celebrity guests. And during his run of promotion for the event, he has been asked about Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson, a fight of which he is not a big fan.
“I think it’s stupid,” KSI told TalkSPORT of the fight, which takes place on Netflix on November 15. “I think he’s trying to fight an OAP, he has no business to be fighting a man that can barely walk who hasn’t fought in years, it just makes no sense.
“But that’s just Jake Paul, for him it’s all about trying to take advantage of people when you don’t have an advantage. That’s how he is and it’s boring, I just think it’s ridiculous.”
Jake Paul claims KSI faked injury to avoid comeback fight
The 2v1 fight that KSI had planned for August 31 in Dublin had proven unpopular with fans, who felt that he should be taking on bigger names than Taylor or Albaher. Even the Brit himself wasn’t too keen on the matchup, but was making a return in the hopes of pursuing bigger future fights.
But with a few weeks until fight night, he was forced out with a severe hand injury that caused him to stop training. However, Paul believes that he likely faked being hurt due to a lack of interest in seeing him fight two lesser names.
"I didn't even know that they were even really still fighting," Paul told Bloody Elbow when asked about the pullout at a PFL event last Friday. I thought it was a 2v1, but I mean, there was not any noise around that s*** anyways. I feel like he could be faking it, but I didn't even realise it was actually happening."
Asked if he felt that his former sparring partner Taylor would have beaten KSI, Paul replied: "I don't know, he's kind of just, like, sloppy but I think that Slim would beat KSI. In a two-on-one? I don't know, he should just fight Slim."
KSI vs Jake Paul grudge fight is being delayed over weight dispute
The key issue that has separated KSI and Jake Paul over the years has been weight. The Brit was willing to bulk up to almost the cruiserweight limit at 193lb for his fight with Logan in 2019, but has since trimmed down and looks a different athlete closer to the 175 light-heavyweight limit.
Meanwhile, Jake is set to move to heavyweight to face Mike Tyson, and reckons he will reach as high as 230lb. This would make cutting even to his former fight weight of 185lb difficult, and it seems that the disparity is too much to overcome on both ends.
"I think it's just down to weight now,” Paul told Bloody Elbow. “Because I'm so much heavier and KSI also says he's walking around at 205. That's what his coach said on an interview so you know, that's the truth. I'm walking around at like 215.
“So I think it's just a weight thing. I think it's like 195-200lbs and that's really the last thing in the way. Well, that's what we said to him.
“We said this is a cruiserweight fight unless we go down to 175. But I can't get down there by any means. So we just said cruiserweight, professional cruiserweight fight, take it or leave it."
