MIKE TYSON took a break from his training to fight Jake Paul so he could watch Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia’s grudge bout.
The boxing icon walked into the Barclays Center in New York to a huge elevation before he took his seat.
Tyson – from Brooklyn himself – was spotted on the streets of the Big Apple just a day before ripping his top off for a friendly tussle with Shannon Briggs.
The youngest heavyweight champion of all time – aged only 20 at the time of the feat – is training for a controversial comeback.
He is due to face YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul on July 20 in a fight scrutinised over the 30-year age gap.
Tyson will be 58 by the time the fight for the ages comes around and nearly 20 years removed from his last professional contest.
He was last seen in the ring in 2020 for an exhibition drawn over eight rounds with fellow great Roy Jones Jr.
Meanwhile Paul, 27, is 9-1 as a boxer who suffered his only defeat to Tyson Fury’s brother Tommy in February 2023, but has won three since.
Tyson recently spoke out in an interview with Reuters to defend the fight, set for the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
He said: “I’m 58 and what? I’m getting billions of views from just talking to somebody about fighting.
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“Everybody, even most of the athletes, they’re jealous. That’s whack. I say in your prime you couldn’t draw a million people, man.
“What are you talking – you couldn’t sell out an arena. Who at 58 could sell out an 80,000-seat arena?”
Paul has commanded polarising attention since making his pro debut in 2020 and comes to the ring with millions of social media followers.
And Tyson added: “Why do you think he wants to fight me and not anybody else? Everybody wants to fight him – all the boxers want to fight him.
“But if he fought them, the only people that will come are the people that like him.”
“The other guys, their parents might not even come watch them. That’s just keeping it real.
“They’re too boring for their children to watch. It’s like watching grass grow.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
