It might be the most pored-over video clip to come out of Dallas since the Zapruder Film.
There appears to be evidence that Mike Tyson’s slap to the face of Jake Paul during Thursday night’s weigh in was, in fact, not unprovoked.
In a clip that has gone viral on social media, Paul is shown crawling on all fours on the stage toward Tyson, who had just stepped off the scales for the weigh in.
Then, as Paul quickly stands up to get in Iron Mike’s face, he appears to step directly on the legend’s toes.
Tyson clearly had enough of Paul’s antics and gave a quick, hard slap to his face before the pair were separated by their teams and security.
“Talk is over,” Tyson said before making a quick exit off stage.
An understandably fired-up Paul responded, claiming that he “didn’t even feel it.”
He then offered a few threats for Friday’s fight.
“It’s personal now,” Paul said. “He’s going to die.”
Tyson said that he initially thought it was by accident, but afterwards he wasn’t so sure.
“I was in my socks and he had on shoes,” Tyson reportedly told the New York Post after the weigh-in. “He stepped on my toe because he is a f***ing a**hole. I wanted to think it happened by accident. But now I think it may have happened on purpose.”
Paul was in more of his usual joking manner later in the evening after his fiery rant, however.
A few hours after the incident, he changed his Instagram profile picture to one featuring comedian Chris Rock getting slapped by actor Will Smith from the Academy Awards in 2022.
Both Tyson and Paul easily made weight for their hotly anticipated heavyweight bout set for Friday night, which is being sponsored by CELSIUS Energy Drinks.
During Thursday’s weigh-in, Tyson tipped the scales at 228.4 pounds while Paul posted a solid 227.4 pounds.
For a man who is 58 years old and hasn’t fought in years, Tyson looked to be in remarkable shape while Paul was no slouch either. Paul was notably beefy than he has been in previous fights, which he contested at cruiserweight which has a weight limit of 200 pounds.
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