Sylvester Stallone has had his say on the biggest fight of the year.
The three-time Oscar-nominated actor made a name for himself playing a fictional boxer in the “Rocky” franchise, which launched his career and made him a multi-millionaire.
The 78-year-old, an avid boxing fan, naturally dropped by to watch Mike Tyson make his long-awaited and controversial return to the ring against Jake Paul on Friday night.
'Iron Mike' claimed a moral victory in defeat after completing the full eight-round distance with a man 31 years his junior, who in recent years has dedicated his life to martial arts.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for Netflix © 2024
Sylvester Stallone Reacts to Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson
Sylvester Stallone believes Mike Tyson held back against Jake Paul.
The 58-year-old struggled to land cleanly throughout the fight, but most people put that down to his age and the fact that he hadn't fought professionally since being stopped by Kevin McBride in 2005.
Still, Stallone believes Tyson was more than capable of toppling Paul, who built his 11-1 professional boxing record fighting undersized, old and undertrained opponents.
The American believes that Paul can consider himself lucky that Tyson did not hurt him.
“Just to set my personal record straight,” Stallone wrote on Instagram.
“Business is business. SOMETIMES you have to do hard things and make sacrifices to help your family…. I have known this incredible athlete since he was 19 years old and what we saw was him giving one of the best Oscar winning performances of all time!!!!
“Please, Jake, be grateful, HE SAVED YOUR LIFE! Believe me… Keep hitting Mike, there will never be a MAN like you, a GLADIATOR like you, and a SOUL like you! Keep hitting champion of champions!
“I remember running into him once and thinking I was hit by a runaway BULLDOZER!!!”
Jake Paul's manager responds to rumors of a 'rigged fight'
Stallone didn't go so far as to claim the fight was rigged; the legendary actor simply suggested that Tyson could have knocked Paul out if he wanted to.
Nakisa Bidarian is Paul's advisor and co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which created the card that attracted more than 60 million viewers to Netflix.
Since the fight, he has addressed all the conspiracy theories about his client, but only felt compelled to address them publicly after an NFL legend weighed in.
“The only thing that bothers me is the constant narrative and people saying, 'The fight was rigged,'” Bidarian said during an interview with Ariel Helwani.
“I saw something of Michael Irvin, he was on the air and was actually sitting there with Jerry Jones. I saw something this week where he said, 'Oh yeah, I saw the contract and Mike couldn't throw an uppercut.'
“I'm afraid there's a CTE problem for Michael Irvin because how would you view the contract that Mike Tyson couldn't uppercut? It is beyond the madness and reality of life.
This was a regulated professional bout by the Texas Athletic Commission, and we were partners with Netflix – the largest media company in the world – which is a publicly traded company.
“Anyone who suggests this was somehow a rigged fight is either stupid or attention-seeking. I get it. Posting messages that say 'Proof that manipulation has taken place' will get you good engagement. Many people comment, many people like and many people share.
“We are in an attention economy; people say a lot of bizarre things to draw attention to themselves. But it is a sad state of society that people want to spend their time there.”
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