Jake Paul admits he wanted another opponent instead of Mike Tyson but saw lucrative fight offer rejected

Jake Paul admitted he wanted to fight another opponent instead of Mike Tyson, only for his offer to be rejected.

Earlier this month it was announced that Paul would be taking on former undisputed world champion Tyson in a boxing match in Texas on July 20.

Paul, a Youtuber-turned-boxer with ten professional fights and nine wins to his name, will go toe-to-toe with Tyson, once the youngest heavyweight champion in history at 20 and the first heavyweight to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

The fight, which will be streamed on Netflix, has received criticism from certain quarters given Paul is some 30 years younger than the 57-year-old Tyson.

Indeed, Paul has revealed that before securing the fight with Tyson he was pushing to have a rematch against Tommy Fury.

Paul suffered his only-ever boxing defeat against the former Love Islander last year and had been pushing for a rematch, only for talks to break down.

The 27-year-old, who is signed to MMA promotion PFL, claimed he offered Fury $20million (£15.8million) for a two-fight deal that would see them rematch in boxing and then have a cage fight.

"Most Valuable Promotions, me and Nakisa [Bidarian], had been trying to find the right fight, the right timeframe, the right event," Paul said via the Mirror.

"We knew we wanted to target this summer so we just started making calls We called Tommy Fury, which was one of the names, and he said no, he wanted more money.

Jake Paul's only professional defeat came against Tommy Fury (Getty)

“So now, and it's all serendipitous, he's probably punching the f***ing air now realising how big of a mistake he made, I mean, he's an idiot.

"Literally, the next offer for him is like nothing, basically, and my brand only increases to a whole other level.

“We probably would've been like 50/50 for that fight and now it's like after this, and who knows what I'm going to do.

“It's like Tommy I'm sorry buddy, you're like a 10 per center now, but you really did f*** up."

Topics: Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Boxing

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.