Boxing superstar Terence Crawford didn’t hold back when reflecting on the 2024 blockbuster clash between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul – saying he believed it was ‘scripted’.
Nearly 40 years after making his pro debut, and 19 years after being battered into retirement, a 58-year-old Tyson climbed back into the ring to fight polarizing star Jake Paul.
Tyson, once regarded as the most feared man in boxing, lost a unanimous decision that left many fight fans scratching their heads – and some questioning the integrity of the bout.
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Crawford, a recently retired five-division champion and longtime Tyson admirer, is certainly among the skeptics.
“I think it was scripted,” he told Joe Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast when asked about the fight.
“I ain’t never seen Tyson biting his gloves and – it was taking all that he could not to hit him.
“It was just like, it’s heartbreaking to see an icon go out like that.”
In the aftermath of the fight, numerous conspiracy theories emerged online, including claims that slow-motion footage showed Tyson deliberately pulling his punches.
Paul and his promotion company have strongly rejected these allegations of impropriety.
Still, Crawford believes the entire spectacle should never have happened.
“He shouldn’t have been in there. At all,” Crawford said.
“I think there’s other ways. I think, with all his connections and things like that, I think people could have put him in the right position to make some money.”
Crawford is far from alone in his criticism of the fight.
UFC superstar Conor McGregor called it “16 minute spar in sparring gloves” in a since-deleted post on X. “F**k off,” he added.
Veteran boxing journalist Dan Rafael, meanwhile, wrote on X that he was “sad watching this”.
“Tyson looks like Tyson, but nothing left under the hood,” he added.
Even basketball legend Magic Johnson weighed in.
“I cut it off because I couldn’t watch anymore,” he wrote.
“It’s sad to see Mike Tyson like this because I went to every Tyson fight. This fight tonight was not great for boxing.”
The allegations of a fix have been addressed by Paul, who issued a blistering response on his brother Logan’s podcast last year.
“People are like, ‘Oh it’s rigged because look at him on the pads,” he said.
“‘He didn’t do this in the fight.’
“Because someone is f***ing punching back, you dumb f**ks.
“You don’t realise my power, my jab, my speed and my ability and footwork to get out of the way of those punches.
“So then all of a sudden, he’s literally throwing at air – he can’t land those punches on me.”
Despite turning 60 soon, Tyson is planning another return to boxing later this year in an exhibition fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Bout ends in draw after big late punch | 00:39
Former multi-weight world champion Mayweather retired from boxing in 2017, unbeaten in 50 bouts, though he has appeared in several exhibition fights since.
He is planning one more professional fight with former rival Manny Pacquiao at the Sphere in Las Vegas this September.