Jake Paul ignored an instruction from his corner during his fight with Mike Tyson as new details come to light.
Paul, 27, extended his professional record to 11-1 with a comfortable points win over heavyweight legend Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Texas in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It proved to be a one-sided contest, with all three judges scoring the fight in favour of Paul – 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73.
Tyson, 58, looked a shadow of his former self and could only land 18 punches during the fight.
But despite his lacklustre performance, he refused to retire from professional boxing after the fight and even called out Paul’s older brother Logan.
It has now emerged that the younger Paul brother ignored an instruction from his corner to finish Tyson before the seventh round of the eight-round contest.
The Mirror report that Paul’s corner told him “you can stop Mike now” during the break after the sixth round.
But YouTuber-turned-boxer didn’t push for the finish in the closing two rounds, with Tyson able to go the full distance.
Speaking after the fight, Paul confirmed that he intentionally held back in the closing rounds out of respect for the former undisputed heavyweight world champion.
“There was a point where I was like he is not really engaging back,” said Paul, at his post-fight press conference.
“So I don’t know if he is tired. I can just tell his age was showing a little bit.
“I just have so much respect for him and that war thing between us after he slapped me, I wanted to be aggressive, take him down and knock him out.
“But that kind of went away as the rounds went on.
“I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Paul comfortably beat Tyson (Image: Getty)
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, who was involved in a furious incident backstage after Katie Taylor’s win over Amanda Serrano, was among those to slam the main event of the evening.
He told Boxing News: “I didn’t really watch it, I was in Katie Taylor changing room.
“I watched the first 30 seconds which were quite entertaining. After that it was horrible to watch. It was hard to watch and it was always going to be like that.
“Mike came out like a raging bull, but after that he was gassed. Mike’s a legend and he showed a load of heart, but you just don’t need to see it.”
