Mike Tyson Freaks Out On Hating Reporter For Calling Him A “Gimmick” Ahead of Jake Paul Fight

Nick PedoneNick Pedone|published: Sun May 19 2024 01:58
After his bout against Roy Jones Jr., Mike Tyson let the world in on his pre-competition training regimen. source: Getty Images

On Thursday, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson faced off for the second time in Arlington, Texas as part of a press tour for their upcoming boxing match.

Before agreeing to a fight on Netflix against Tyson, Paul had promised boxing fans that he was taking the sport seriously. Instead of knocking out other YouTubers, basketball players and washed up UFC stars, “The Problem Child” defeated two lesser-known boxers. It felt like his intentions were genuine, to build up an actual boxing resume and compete for a world championship.

But that all changed when he announced his fight with the legendary Iron Mike, who will be 58 years old at the time of the fight. And once again, the critics and boxing oldheads are not happy.

Jacob Detamore, a radio producer at 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas, asked Paul when he was going to fight a contender in his weight class, and not do gimmick fights.

Paul, 27, clapped back at the question in classic Problem Child fashion.

“I think he just called Mike Tyson a gimmick,” Paul said.

As you would imagine, in this WWE-style press conference, Tyson took offense to the question, or at least pretended to.

“What did you just call me, sir?” Tyson repeatedly asked. “What did you call me?”

Detamore, who for some reason was still holding the microphone, nervously insisted that he didn’t call Tyson anything while Paul gave his typical rant about doing more for boxing than anyone else in the history of the sport.

This entire fight is a gigantic circus, and that’s part of what makes it so great. Tyson is old, but he’s still entertaining. Paul has taken the boxing world by storm after doing YouTube skits and starring on Disney channel less than a decade ago.
 

Detamore has a long lineage of hateful tweets towards Paul, which made the question even funnier. Like this time, where he called the Paul brothers “tools.”


Here’s another one where he says the Paul brothers are making a mockery of the sport.

And one last one, where Detamore says that Paul “is completely unserious and should be treated as such.”

Paul's fight against Tyson must be serious enough that Detamore's bosses at The Ticket assigned him to cover it. Or rather, he saw it as an opportunity to push his agenda. And that's where he missed the mark.

From just a quick search of his social media history, it’s clear that Detamore had a preconceived agenda before asking his question.  Here’s the thing. Detamore was trying to ask a legitimately tough question in a press conference setting. He was trying to plant his flag that Paul isn’t a real boxer, and this whole thing was all for show.

But he got caught in the complex web that is Jake Paul. He fed right into Paul’s game. He gave him exactly what he wanted.

He gave Paul a viral clip. He gave him a big pop from the crowd. And that’s what this entire thing has always been about.