‘I was wrong’… Dana White’s surprising reaction to Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson after initially advising boxing legend against the fight
Dana White has admitted that he was wrong when he recommended that Mike Tyson avoid making a ring return.
The UFC boss went as far as to have ‘Iron Mike’ booked on a different show in 2020 when he was planning to come back against Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition. And he really was not interested in seeing the 58-year-old face Jake Paul in a fully sanctioned professional bout.
Paul and Tyson ended up going the distance last night, with over 65million households viewing live on streaming giant Netflix. It ended up crashing servers, and became one of the most viewed sporting events of all time.
Dana White admits Mike Tyson proved him wrong in Jake Paul fight
UFC CEO Dana White and Mike Tyson are famously close friends, and remain in regular contact about their careers. And when the famed executive learned about Paul vs Tyson, he strongly advised against him doing it.
However, the legendary heavyweight champion gave White a pep talk about his abilities, and informed him that he would comfortably be able to deal with whatever Paul threw at him. “Mike Tyson was right, and I was wrong,” White told media after UFC 309 on Saturday night.
“You guys know the whole story about Shark Week, if you don’t, I begged him not to do the Roy Jones fight ‘you’re too old, I love you, I don’t want to see you take any more punishment’. So I set him up on shark week.
“He got paid good money but he almost flipped out and was ready to kill everybody on the boat the last day because he had to jump in with all these sharks in the boat in the middle of Florida.
“And he’s like ‘this fing a**hole says that he cares about me, I’ve been fighting since I was 12 and he decides to throw me in a fing ocean with a bunch of sharks!’ He was right about that, too.
“So I told him ‘Mike, you’re basically 60-years-old’ and he said ‘Do you honestly think this kid is going to do anything to me? He’s not good, he’s not going to f***ing knock me out or do this’.
“And you saw him, he tripped walking down the thing, had a hard time walking up the stairs and had a knee brace on. Then Jake Paul couldn’t do anything to him.
“He made a ton of money and I know people were mad that they stayed home, but you didn’t pay for it. When Mike Tyson shows up, everybody makes money.
“Jake Paul isn’t a fing… I don’t have to tell you guys, you guys know, Mike Tyson is the A++++ side of that thing. He was right, Jake Paul couldn’t do s to him. He was right and I was wrong.”
Dana White rips into Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson broadcast
However, White was not a big fan of what he saw on Netflix, particularly calling out Hollywood star Rosie Perez for her involvement on the night. He also noted that the event at least didn’t cost fans anything, even though he agreed with Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy’s assessment that it was a ‘con job’.
“These guys will do a fight and then have a f***ing podcast for the next hour and a half until the main event comes on,” White continued. “You know what we do? We go boom, boom, boom and the fights go on.
“All the s* talk is done, you don’t need to see f*ing Rosie Perez breaking down fights, you know?”
