By now you may have seen the sweat-drenched videos of former world heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, 57, prepping for his July 20 match with YouTuber-turned-professional-boxer Jake Paul. The bout — which will air on Netflix from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX — will feature the champ taking on 27-year-old Paul in Iron Mike’s first official fight in nearly two decades.
And now we have a clip of Paul’s work-out regime, which appears to involve easily leveling defenseless non-pugilists. In a clip uploaded on Thursday (April 4), Paul positions MAGA rapper Lil Pump just so in the middle of a boxing ring. After Paul asks if he’s ready, Pump, with his be-gloved arms in the air, takes the shot and immediately crumples to the ground in agony after Paul unleashes a single left hook into the unguarded “Big MAGA Steppin” MC’s midsection.
“Ohhhhhhhh!” a shirtless Pump yelps in agony as he crawls around the mat clutching his midsection, his face red from the screaming. With a crew of videographers swarming around the prostrate Pump to capture the clickbait moment for viral posterity — mission accomplished — Paul smiles and says, “I told you not to do it.”
The just-for-the-cameras stunt was clearly meant to help hype the fight — as Paul was only wearing one glove — and Pump appeared to seriously, and immediately, regret agreeing to take the mighty blow. “Jake Paul is officially 10-1 [face sweating emoji],” Pump captioned the video. “Not gonna lie, that liver shot made me feel like I was dying [crying laughing emoji].”
While Tyson has been hitting the gym hard, over the past few weeks Paul appeared to be easing his way into his latest bout, posting a video on March 26 of him partying and chugging champagne with the classic trash-talking caption, “Day 1 of sending Mike Tyson back to his podcast for good.” By the next day, though, he posted an update from his 6,000-foot elevation training camp in Colorado Springs, where he said he was training hard with Olympians, followed by another in which he openly taunted Tyson, saying, “Mikey, Mikey, your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.”
Last month, Tool’s Maynard James Keenan posted pics with Tyson, who has been training at the rocker’s Cottonwood, AZ Verde Valley BJJ martial arts school. The legendarily hard-hitting boxer with a career 50-6 record (including 44 knockouts), has been posting sweat-drenched videos of his intense workouts in the lead-up to his first fight since his controversial draw against fellow former champ Roy Jones Jr. in Nov. 202 in an exhibition match. Tyson is 21 years from his last win and both men are expected to take home major paydays for the headline-grabbing showdown.
Since his improbably pivot from Bizaardvark and YouTube prank video fame, Paul has fought a series of MMA fighters, former professional boxers and basketball players, boosting his record to date to 9-1 (6 by KO), with his one loss coming at the hands of the only active boxer he’s faced to date, Tommy Fury, in Feb. 2023.
