'He spared your life!' – Sylvester Stallone sends message to Jake Paul following controversial fight with Mike Tyson
11/21/2024 10:56 AM
Sylvester Stallone has had his say on the biggest fight of the year.
The three-time Oscar-nominated actor made his name portraying a fictional boxer in the 'Rocky' franchise, which launched his career and made him a multi-millionaire.
An avid boxing fan, the 78-year-old of course turned in to watch Mike Tyson make his eagerly anticipated and controversial return to the ring against Jake Paul on Friday night.
'Iron Mike' claimed a moral victory in defeat after going the full eight-round distance with a man 31 years his junior, who has dedicated his life to combat sports for the past several years.
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Sylvester Stallone reacts to Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson
Sylvester Stallone believes that Mike Tyson held back against Jake Paul.
The 58-year-old struggled to land cleanly throughout the bout, but most people put that down to his age and the fact he hadn't fought professionally since being stopped by Kevin McBride in 2005.
Still, Stallone is of the opinion that Tyson was more than capable of toppling Paul, who has built his 11-1 professional boxing record fighting undersized, old, and undertrained opponents.
The American thinks Paul should count himself lucky Tyson didn't try to hurt him.
"Just to set my personal record straight," Stallone wrote on Instagram.
"Business is business. SOMETIMES you have to do hard things and sacrifice for the sake of helping your FAMILY…. I have known this unbelievable athlete since he's 19 years old and what we saw was him giving one of the great Oscar winning performances of all time!!!!
"Please, Jake, be grateful, HE SPARED YOUR LIFE! Trust me …..Keep punching Mike, there will never be a MAN like you, a GLADIATOR like you, and a SOUL like you! Keep punching champion of champions!
"I remember once I bumped into him and thought I was hit by runaway BULLDOZER!!!"
Jake Paul's manager reacts to 'rigged fight' rumors
Stallone didn't go as far as claiming the fight was rigged, the legendary actor simply suggested that Tyson could've knocked out Paul if he had wanted to.
Nakisa Bidarian is Paul's advisor and the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which put on the card that attracted over 60 million viewers to Netflix.
Since the fight, he's been paying attention to all the conspiracy theories about his client, but he only felt compelled to publicly address them after an NFL legend joined in.
“The only thing that bothers me is the continued narrative and people saying, 'The fight was rigged'," Bidarian said during an interview with Ariel Helwani.
"I saw something from Michael Irvin, he was on the broadcast and actually sat there with Jerry Jones. I saw something this week where he's like, 'Oh, yeah, I saw the contract and Mike couldn't throw an uppercut'.
"I'm concerned there's a CTE problem there for Michael Irvin because how would you see the contract to begin with that Mike Tyson couldn't throw an uppercut? It's beyond lunacy and the realm of reality of life.
This was a regulated professional bout by the Texas Athletic Commission, and we were partners with Netflix – the biggest media company in the world – who is a public company.
"For anyone to suggest this was in any way a rigged fight, they are either dumb or looking for attention. I get it. Putting up posts, 'Proof it was rigged' and that gets you good engagement. A lot of people comment, a lot of people like and a lot of people share.
"We are in an attention economy; people say a lot of outlandish things to bring attention to themselves. But it's a sad state of society that that's where people want to spend their time."
