Oscar De La Hoya has delivered his verdict on Mike Tyson‘s return to the ring against Jake Paul.
The 58-year-old heavyweight veteran lost a wide unanimous points decision to Paul, 27, who has made his name in the sport mostly by facing former UFC fighters.
Tyson looked in the fight for around a minute before his age showed and the younger man cruised through the eight rounds. Despite ‘Iron’ Mike not being hurt as many worried may happen, the contest has still been branded sad and in bad taste.
As with many Paul events, there have been claims circulating online that it was ‘scripted.’ The promotion of course has strongly denied this and, given the fact it was professionally sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and garnered huge betting interest, there is nothing to suggest the claims hold any weight.
Oscar De La Hoya, however, absolutely buys into the main event being ‘staged’, as he discussed on Instagram.
“Everybody is talking about how staged this fight was. I do believe it was scripted and I believe that Tyson was certainly held back. Look, I’m a fighter and I can see it. It goes on their record and it was sanctioned. Jake Paul paid to get the W on his record! For what? For your own personal satisfaction? I keep telling you, if you want to be a real fighter like you say you want to be, what are you doing? Who’s next? Joe Biden? You have to fight real fighters.”
The fighter turned promoter did praise the record-breaking business side of the event and its chief support, the thrilling rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
“However, the fight drew 65 million households. Which means roughly 200 million eyeballs were watching. The real winners were Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, who put on an incredible real fight and we’re introduced to new fans around the world.”
Tyson has confirmed it will be his last time through the ropes. Paul moves ahead with an 11-1 pro record and has been called out by some of the biggest names in the sport.
