Paul vs Tyson LIVE: Latest news, press conference updates and start time for Netflix fight

“There’s nothing nice about me,” Mike Tyson said, speaking to The Independent and other publications over Zoom, two weeks before his fight with Jake Paul.

“I’m not a nice person. I’m a decent person, I try to do the right thing. But a nice person, I am not. Anybody with the [idea] that I’m a nice person is gonna be disappointed. I’m just not. I don’t make people happy for no reason, I’m just who I am. I’m not trying to gain friends, that’s basically what I’m saying.

“I don’t want to make friends with you, I don’t care if you put me on your yacht, I don’t give a f***. I’m not gonna ever be nice to nobody; I’ll be kind, but never nice.”

Mike Tyson’s once-ferocious fighting career was already helter-skeltering towards its feeble conclusion when the video-sharing platform YouTube first flickered into life in February 2005.

Four months later, the so-called ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’, who had cut a swathe through the world’s best heavyweights towards the end of the 1980s, was crumpling in the corner under the less than concussive fists of Irishman Kevin McBride in Washington DC.

Tyson’s pitiful professional conclusion, which followed innumerable controversies and scandals that dogged his career both in and out of the ring, served to soften the memory of the impact of those crushing early wins, and question his hard-won reputation as one of the most brutal and unforgiving world champions of all time.

So it is hardly surprising that Tyson professes himself entirely unconcerned by criticism of his decision to end his 19-year hiatus from the ring and return at the age of 58 to face the YouTuber Jake Paul in Arlington, Texas on Friday night.

“What do I care about my legacy?” Tyson said in a wide-ranging chat with Interview Magazine this week. “I never knew what a legacy was and people started throwing that word around so loosely. A legacy sounds like ego to me. I’m going to be dead soon. Who cares what somebody is going to think about me when I’m dead?”

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.

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.

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

Read Steve Bunce’s preview in full:

YouTube star Paul, 27, was due to box Tyson, 58, in July, but the former heavyweight champion had to delay the bout after experiencing an ulcer flare-up on a plane.

Save for any late problems, the fight will go ahead on Friday, as Tyson boxes professionally for the first time in 19 years. Meanwhile, Paul has gone 10-1 as a pro since establishing himself as a YouTuber.

And ahead of their officially-sanctioned, professional bout, the Americans will share a stage at Toyota Music Factory on Wednesday (13 November), with each man set to talk up his chances of winning – amid conflicting predictions in the boxing world.

Barring any late issues, the bout is finally set to go ahead on Friday (15 November), at Texas’s AT&T Stadium: home to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. And the fight, in an unprecedented move, will stream live on Netflix.