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    • Why did Mike Tyson slap Jake Paul? A close friend explains
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    Why did Mike Tyson slap Jake Paul? A close friend explains

    Pabio Posted on

    ARLINGTON, Texas – A longtime friend of Mike Tyson said the boxer told him he slapped Jake Paul Thursday night because Paul stepped on his foot.

    The video appears to show Paul briefly stepping on the front of Tyson’s right foot and quickly moving his foot back towards the weigh-in for their Friday fight at AT&T Stadium. Tyson then slapped Paul in the face with his right hand and pointed him to the ground before the two men were separated.

    “Jake stepped on Mike’s foot, which caused a reaction,” Tom Patti, one of Tyson’s longtime friends, told USA TODAY Sports via text message. “I was there and Mike just told me.”

    Patti and Tyson trained together under Cus D’Amato in Catskill, New York, and lived together in D’Amato’s house from 1982 to 1987, Patti said. In 2016, Patti was elected to the San Joaquin County (California) Board of Supervisors and Tyson told USA TODAY Sports in 2021 that he was the one who first encouraged Patti to go into politics.

    In town for the fight, Patti said he was at the Toyota Music Factory Thursday night in Irving when the weigh-in drama unfolded. After Tyson and Paul took turns weighing in, the fighters walked to one end of the stage.

    This is where Paul crawled over to Tyson before getting up and, apparently, stepping on Tyson’s right foot with his left foot.

    “My personal opinion is that Jake shows enough disrespect to start crawling towards Mike and then lunging in front of him… like some sort of swerving animal. Mike put him in his place,” Patti said.

    Tyson and Paul have often appeared friendly in joint appearances since the fight was first announced in March. In May, both fighters fended off speculation that the fight was fixed because they seemed so friendly.

    But Tyson has become more and more withdrawn and Paul more and more hostile this week.

    Patti said Tyson’s reaction Thursday night at the weigh-in shows he’s “done with all the publicity.” It’s time to fight.

    Pabio
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