Controversy surrounding Jake Paul’s win over Mike Tyson on Nov. 15 isn’t going away, and Paul’s promotional company is hoping to set the record straight on the fight’s—and the fighter’s—legitimacy.
Paul’s business partner and promoter of the fight Nakisa Bidarian told Sportico in a phone interview that the fighter’s camp was coming out swinging against critics, including Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone, who were “looking to create a clickbait moment” and “making up defamatory lies.”
Most Valuable Promotions, founded by Paul in 2021, issued a statement Monday morning pushing back against online chatter that the main event was rigged, contending not only that Paul and Tyson performed in good faith but that Netflix would not have entertained streaming the fight if it was illegitimate. Despite Netflix’s buffering issues, the main event was streamed by 60 million households around the world, peaking at 65 million concurrent global streams.
“Rigging a professional boxing match is a federal crime in the United States of America,” the statement read. “Paul vs. Tyson was a professional match sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations (TDLR). … Each boxer was able to use his full arsenal to win the fight. Any agreement to the contrary would violate TDLR boxing rules.”
The statement went further to address criticism of the 27-year-old Paul, whose boxing career began against other online influencers.
Bidarian, the MVP co-founder, told Sportico that the boxer has faced similar accusations since his second pro fight when he knocked out former NBA star Nate Robinson on a November 2020 card and has generally addressed the critics via social media. Yet the volume of the commentary about the Tyson fight, as well as the celebrities and public figures who chimed in, compelled the promoter to defend itself, an unusual step in the boxing world.
“We’ve never taken legal action, because we just view the world that we live in to be one of, you know, constant, outlandish, viral, click-based statements by people,” Bidarian said. “We broke so many records, and then to see the avalanche of not just social media people looking to create a clickbait moment, but celebrities, and iconic figures in sport, a big actor like Sylvester Stallone coming out and making up defamatory lies about what this was. We just felt it was important to set the record straight.”
In a caption on a mash-up photo of a younger Tyson throwing a punch at Stallone as his famed Rocky Balboa character, Stallone said of Tyson, “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 ….”
Paul replied online: “Always looked up to you as kid, but now you are a spreader of lies against my name. Sad to see you fall. Maybe it’s all the plastic surgery.”
Stallone did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to his talent agency.
Jake Paul began boxing in 2018 as part of a fight card featuring his older brother Logan and other influencers. That card was billed as “the biggest internet event in history” and reportedly got 1.3 million pay-per-view buys. While Logan fought just three more times, including losing an exhibition to Floyd Mayweather Jr., before transitioning to WWE, Jake continued to box.
Of Jake Paul’s 12 pro fights, just five of his opponents are or were traditional boxers, including Tommy Fury, the half-brother of former heavyweight titlist Tyson Fury, who defeated Paul via split decision in February 2023. In addition to Robinson, Paul boxed against athletes better known from mixed marital arts: Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley (twice), Ben Askren and Nate Diaz.
Boxing is often assailed with claims about being fixed or “rigged,” and promoters generally don’t issue public comments about such accusations. Yet for Bidarian and MVP, the slings and arrows are more pointed because of how quickly Paul has built fame in the sport—and because of his prior life as a YouTube celebrity.
“This is his biggest personal achievement in the ring on many fronts,” Bidarian said of Paul. “This is a young man who made $12 million at the age of 18, living in L.A. by himself, and until he was 22 he lived a fairly volatile, multi-millionaire teenager lifestyle. If you judge him for the past four years of his life, of what he’s done and what he’s accomplished inside and outside the ring, doesn’t matter what his background is.
“I couldn’t be more proud to be his partner, and more proud to be his advisor. And that had nothing to do with being a creature of YouTube, it had everything to do with just taking a position.”
