Jake Paul’s highly-anticipated and much-criticized date in the ring against Mike Tyson hit a bump in the road with the former heavyweight champion recovering from a medical issue and the bout was pushed to November.
In the meantime, Paul will square off against former UFC fighter and current bare-knuckle boxer “Platinum” Mike Perry in at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday night. The pay-per-view event is an eight-round cruiserweight bout at 200 pounds.
Paul, 27, is 9-1 with six knockouts as a professional boxer, although the quality of his opponents to date has been highly panned. Add to that list Perry, a 32-year-old with a 5-0 record with three knockouts in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. This will be his first fight in traditional boxing.
Paul is the heavy -425 favorite at DraftKings, where Perry is being offered at +300. Paul winning by knockout, technical knockout or disqualification leads the winning method props at -125, followed by a Paul win by decision or technical decision at +250.
Perry winning by KO/TKO/DQ is being offered at +450, while Perry scoring a victory by decision or technical decision is a +1200 long shot.
Paul barely made weight for the fight, needing to strip down to hit 200 pounds on the number Friday. Perry weighed in at 196.6 pounds.
“You’re gonna see what I’m gonna do to (BKFC’s) best fighter on Saturday night,” Paul said at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference. “I’m gonna embarrass their whole entire league. This guy has no skill. Those (BKFC fighters) are just brawler, idiot, street fighter dudes, who have no idea what the sweet science is.”
Paul’s comments came in response to BKFC co-owner Conor McGregor, who called Paul “a little dweeb of a thing” in saying that he is rooting for Perry on Saturday.
“Conor McGregor can say whatever he wants, but he won’t fight me, either,” Paul said. “Once I knock out Mike Perry, Conor McGregor, let’s run it, but you won’t do it because you know what’s gonna happen. You saw what I did to Nate Diaz, who you went toe-to-toe with.”
Paul has won three consecutive fights since his lone loss by split decision to Tommy Fury in February 2023. His bout with the 57-year-old Tyson has been rescheduled for Nov. 15.
–Field Level Media
