According to Freddie Roach, Mike Tyson once witnessed his upcoming opponent Jake Paul sparring.
The acclaimed Hall of Fame trainer – who has cornered the likes of James Toney, Manny Pacquiao and Tyson himself for two fights – once gave his verdict on the YouTuber-turned-fighter to FightHype and said ‘Iron’ Mike was also in attendance.
“The kid’s okay, a club fighter … I don’t know him personally and I’ve never really met him. He was in my gym and wondered if they could use the ring and I said go ahead.”
Tyson looked at him and left. He saw 30 seconds of him sparring and said, ‘Freddie, can we go down and see the pictures?’ He knows that’s where the good pictures are. He wasn’t as interested as I was.”
Speaking to TalkSPORT, Paul absolutely refuted the claims.
“First and foremost, I saw these things that Freddie Roach was saying – that I was like sparring at his gym. First of all, I’ve never even trained at Wild Card gym, Freddie is a f****** idiot, he’s a hater.
Mike Tyson has never watched me spar, Mike Tyson has never been in the gym at the same time as me sparring. I went to Wild Card like once to talk to somebody for a meeting and for my brother’s press conference there. But Mike Tyson wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity, so it’s just Freddie Roach spreading rumours. Especially because me and Mike are friends man.”
Little did the pair know that they would be fighting a couple of years on. Following an initial postponement, Tyson-Paul takes place at the AT&T Stadium in Texas on November 15. The bout has drawn major controversy due to the inactivity and advancing years of Tyson, who hasn’t competed professionally since 2005.
