Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight branded 'disgusting' by Eddie Hearn

Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson is the boxing event of the year everyone’s talking about – and some for the wrong reasons, after promoter Eddie Hearn branded the fight “disgusting”.

The pair are going head to head at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on July 20 and it will be the first ever live boxing broadcast on Netflix. Much has been made of the age gap between the two competitors. Tyson will be 58-years-old when the fight happens and Paul will be 27.

Hearn is one of the biggest names in boxing promotion and the son of Barry Hearn, who also made his feelings clear and said the whole thing is “quite sad”.

"I think we live in a crazy world, don’t we, where that younger generation is built off views, built off narrative, built off controversy," he said on Piers Morgan Uncensored.

"And as a hardcore fight fan, someone who has been around boxing since I was nine years old, I find it disgusting that a 58 year old man - who was my hero growing up - firstly has to even get back in the ring, from a financial point of view with the amount of money that man was paid or partially paid during his career, to get in a ring with a 25-year-old guy who can’t really fight.”

He added: “But for me I understand it and I was speaking to the Netflix guys, I don’t think they liked my criticism of the event. I’m never going to lie to you, I’m never going to sugar coat it, I’m just going to give you my honest opinion which is, it will sell, people will watch, it’ll be a big event and I don’t like it."

Barry went on to say: "It’s going to make a huge amount of money. You can understand Netflix’s approach. If [Tyson] doesn’t win quickly he can’t win. I don’t believe the other guy is much of a fighter but he’s fit and he trains and he’s young."

He added: "Two rounds, no matter, when you’re 59, two rounds max, Tyson’s going to be blowing out of his backside because it’s quite dangerous, boxing at that level… I find it quite sad."

Tyson recently revealed a massive detail about the upcoming fight with YouTuber Jake Paul, stating that the fight will be an exhibition bout.

He said: “This is called an exhibition but if you look up exhibition, you will not see any of the laws we are fighting under. This is a fight.

"He's come a long way from YouTubing - listen, I saw him doing weird dances when he was 16, that's not the guy I'm going to be fighting.

"This guy is going to come and try and hurt me which I'm accustomed to and he's going to be greatly mistaken."

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings