ARLINGTON, Texas — For the second time in a week, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano faced off against each other before their highly-anticipated bouts this summer.
The "Paul vs. Tyson" and "Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 2" co-main event the fight card is happening July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It will be exclusively streamed on Netflix. Any Netflix subscriber will be able to watch this live event without any additional cost – no pay-per-view.
Tyson and Paul are reportedly earning tens of millions of dollars just for participating in the fight. However, the city of Arlington is hoping to be the biggest winner after the bell rings. Few dollar figures surrounding the Netflix-carried fight have been disclosed, but state records give a glimpse at the incentives involved in bringing the fight to Arlington.
The state of Texas and city of Arlington agreed to spend about $1.8 million in total incentives to offset the costs of bringing the event to Texas, according to a document from the state's Event Trust Funds program. The city itself will likely contribute about $247,000 and the state could pay about $1.5 million. Those incentives could change based on final attendance numbers.
Earlier this week, Netflix and MVP announced two fights on the undercard: H2O Sylve (11-0, 9 KOs) vs. Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs), and former WBC middleweight world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 34 KOs) vs. UK UFC star Darren Till in Till’s professional boxing debut.
Tickets for the event went live Thursday morning. The cheapest ticket listed was $70, but tickets much closer to the ring (on the field) were priced at several thousands of dollars. Lower bowl and mid-bowl seats were a couple hundred bucks.
According to officials at Arlington's press conference, just hours into the sale going live, the fight card broke the all-time record in the state of Texas for sales in a combat sporting event.
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Arlington press conference
July 20 is sure to be entertaining. Thursday's press conference in Arlington was tenfold more confrontational and testy than the New York one.
From the first moment Jake Paul was introduced, the fans at Texas Live! let him know he was not welcome. Boos roared in the crowd, and Paul reveled in the heel role. Paul immediately fired back at the crowd.
"Hey Dallas, shut the f*** up. Y'all keep booing, I'm going to keep doing. That's how y'all want to do it? Let's f****** do it. Keep booing. I keep doing. I told y'all [you’re] the ultimate f****** hillbillies. Go milk a cow," Paul said.
The overwhelmingly anti-Paul crowd then proceeded to give Tyson a roaring cheer and ovation.
This back-and-forth of contentious energy between Paul and the Texas Live! crowd persisted for the entire press conference.
At one point, Tyson called Paul "fat," noting his nearly 50-pound weight gain since he last fought Nate Diaz at Dallas' American Airlines Center. Paul weighed in at 185 pounds for the Diaz fight. According to his own podcast, Paul now weighs upwards of 230 pounds to fight Tyson at the heavyweight level.
"I don't know if he's in his prime. He's fat. He should be lean and mean and he's fat and funky. I saw him with his shirt off though and he's fat," Tyson said.
"Hey, Buster Douglas was fat. Am I right? I know, but you know Buster Douglas, I'm better. I'm going to end you quicker than he did and you'll remember that forever," Paul rebutted. "You started me off. I appreciate that. Mike, I love you. I love you like a father loves his son, but I must discipline you. You're going down, man."
Both fighters shut down any criticism about the fight being rigged or scripted.
"I started Jake off and I’m gonna finish him," Tyson said.
"I hope y'all keep that same energy when I knock this old man the f*** out. Clearly, they don't have a high IQ in here, but that's a federal crime," Paul added.
At numerous different points in the press conference, the crowd erupted into "f*** Jake Paul" chants. Each time, Paul joined in and basked in the negative attention thrown his way.
At the end, during the face-off, Paul made a motion to "draw a bow" and squatted down into a fighting stance. Tyson stood there with his hands on his hips, laughed in Paul's face and walked off.
See some of the moments from the press conference in the social clips below from WFAA Senior Digital Producer Paul Livengood:
Jake Paul's weight gain: Bulking up to fight Mike Tyson at heavyweight
The last time Jake Paul boxed in Dallas, he was going up against UFC great Nate Diaz. He fought Diaz at 185 pounds.
Paul's team shared video of a promo shoot for his fight against Mike Tyson and people online immediately pointed at the noticeably different physique this time around.
Paul now weighs 230 pounds for his heavyweight fight against Tyson.
"Normally I'm fighting at 200 and walking around at 210. It's weird to me that I'm weighing 230," Paul shared on his podcast.
Tyson weighed 220 pounds for his exhibition fight against fellow legend Roy Jones Jr in 2020. It is unclear how much Tyson currently weighs. Tyson has been sharing clips on social media, however, of his training for the July match against Paul.
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson New York press conference
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson / Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 2 fight card information
Here is a look at the full fight card:
- Jake Paul (9-1, 6 KOs) vs. Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs)
- Amanda Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KOs) vs. Katie Taylor (23-1, 6 KOs)
- H2O Sylve (11-0, 9 KOs) vs. Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs)
- Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 34 KOs) vs. Darren Till (0-0)
- Neeraj Goyat (18-4-2, 8 KOs) vs. Whindersson Nunes (2-2-1, 1 KO)
More undercard bouts will be announced at a later date, officials said in a press release.
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