Why did Mike Tyson beat Jake Paul? A close friend explains

On By Littum

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

The video appears to be playing Paul steps briefly in front of Tyson’s right foot and quickly moves his foot back at the weigh-in for their Friday match at AT&T Stadium. Tyson then punched Paul in the face with his right hand and pointed to the ground before the two men were pulled apart.

“Jake stepped on Mike’s foot, which got the reaction,” Tom Patti, one of Tyson’s longtime friends, told USA TODAY Sports via text. “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 enter politics.

In town for the game, 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 went to one end of the stage.

It was there that Paul crawled up to Tyson before standing and apparently stepping on Tyson’s right foot with his left foot.

“My personal opinion (is) that Jake shows enough disrespect that he starts crawling up to Mike and then throws himself in front of him … like some kind of squirming animal. Mike put him in his place,” Patti said.

Tyson and Paul have often appeared friendly during joint appearances since the fight was first announced in March. In May, both fighters pushed back against speculation that the fight was rigged because they appeared to be so cute.

But Tyson has become more and more withdrawn and Paul has become more and more antagonistic this week.

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