Paul vs Tyson LIVE: Latest updates and start time as tension builds for fight night after weigh-in slap

Mike Tyson slapped Jake Paul in a heated final face-off for their boxing match, leading the YouTuber to say the heavyweight legend “hits like a b***h.”

Tyson, 58, will fight YouTuber Paul, 27, in Texas on Friday (15 November), in the former heavyweight champion’s first professional bout in 19 years.

And one night before that divisive fight, Tyson and Paul tipped the scales at a weigh-in, as fans in Dallas cheered the boxing great and booed the social-media star. Paul weighed in at 227.2lb, before Tyson came in at 228.4lb.

Then, as Paul and Tyson came face to face, the latter slapped Paul, before security separated the pair.

“Talking’s over,” Tyson told host Ariel Helwani, before refusing to explain why he hit Paul or answer more questions.

Paul then said: “I didn’t even feel it. He’s angry. He’s an angry little elf. Mike Tyson, I thought that was a cute slap, but tomorrow night I’m knocking you the f*** out. I’m f***ing him up.

“He hits like a b***, it’s personal now, he must die!” Paul screamed.

“Are we doing video?” Jake Paul asks, half-aiming the question at me and half-directing it towards his representative on the Zoom call. “Err, yeah?” I reply. “I don’t usually upload the video from these sorts of chats, but...”

But it would seem strange to interview one of the biggest screen presences of the last decade and not have him appear, well, on screen.

‘Biggest’ replaces ‘most popular’ here, given the word ‘popular’ tends to imply widespread affection, and it’s fair to say that Paul is more well-known than well-liked. Controversies have arisen at intervals since the American emerged on Vine in 2013, three years before his two-season stint on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. Paul, 27, has nevertheless only seen his profile grow in the decade since, with 20 million YouTube subscribers and 27m Instagram followers at the time of writing.

Still, he does not identify as a YouTuber or influencer anymore; he’s a professional boxer.

Exclusive interview:

Mike Tyson is not a nice guy, and he is not at peace. Those are his words. The words of a former world heavyweight champion. The words of a brutal fighter once proclaimed (fairly) as the “baddest man on the planet”. The words of a fighter who chewed a chunk out of an opponent’s ear. The words of a father, husband, podcaster and convicted criminal.

There was a time when Mike Tyson was a simple being – 40 years ago, perhaps. So purely violent and destructive was the boxer that he was arguably as one-dimensional as he was single-minded. Nowadays, things are more complicated. For a long time, he has been a genuine enigma.

The American, who still holds the record for being boxing’s youngest-ever world heavyweight champion, is older now. The 58-year-old did his time in prison – from 1992 to 1995 after being convicted of rape, plus nine months in 1999 for assaulting two motorists – and served his ban for biting into Evander Holyfield’s ear. Despite his troubling and troubled past, Tyson is loved by many boxing fans for the memories he gave them during his prime; he is treasured for the sense of wonderment he drilled through their TV screens and into their living rooms with vicious, merciless strikes in the Eighties and Nineties. Punches that altered the lives of Tyson’s opponents and audiences, in different ways.

Watching Tyson at that time might have been akin to staring at fire up close, finding yourself absorbed by the flames. You wouldn’t want to touch them, of course, but their power speaks to something primal. Mike Tyson spoke to something primal in other humans. So, it feels as though there was always an urge to forgive him for his mistakes: the immoral and criminal. In many ways, he is a changed man. In others, maybe not. There has long been a desire to see him as changed, at least.

And yet...

“Live on Netflix.” You’ll hear those words a lot this week, as Mike Tyson and Jake Paul meet in one of the most controversial fights in recent memory. But as novel as those words are, they may represent the norm in the coming months and years.

Let’s start with the exposition. Netflix has been a game-changer in the consumption of film and television over the last decade, and the American streaming giant is now seeking to have the same impact in the world of sport. Launched in 1998, Netflix’s first major boom took place between 2007 and 2011, as its subscriber numbers soared from 6m to 23m. But it felt like Netflix really became a staple in living rooms and on laptops worldwide in the mid-2010s, with the release of its first original output: the award-winning, US remake of House Of Cards.

Since then, numerous series like Squid Game, Stranger Things, Money Heist and Bridgerton have further shown Netflix’s ability to produce craved art and content (although the platform’s original films have not impressed in the same way), seeing a growth to 282.7m subscribers as of late 2024.

And Netflix’s next move? Committing to live sport.

One day before the fight, people are still asking me this question.

Lawrence Ostlere answers it wonderfully here, so give his piece a read:

There is no hate, no love, the gloves are big and the rounds will be short when Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight on Friday night.

It makes no difference if the men share fifty million dollars for their carnival night in a Texas ring. It is one of the purest fights for money in the dirty, old boxing game; it’s not personal, it’s just cash. And, lots of it.

Tyson is 58 now, reformed, grey at the edges, his eyes have softened with his belly and each attempt at spitting venom sounds fake. Well, it probably is, so what? He was once Iron Mike, the youngest heavyweight champion in history, so please show some respect.

Paul, in his own unique way, has single-handedly ruined the boxing careers of many UFC stars and exposed them inside the boxing ring as flat-footed swingers; now the former child performer is hunting down faded kings of the ring. It is the unmade Rocky movie with a twist: can the old king beat the young kid? It’s the age-old boxing tale.

It has, obviously, been called a freak show, a meaningless event, a danger to Tyson’s health and a threat to the dignity of boxing, having been rearranged after Tyson suffered a health scare.

But here’s what you don’t understand about the fight...

Read Steve Bunce’s preview in full:

Paul seemed fired up at the weigh-in, while Tyson almost looked to be in a trance – until the slap, of course.