At Wednesday’s press conference, Tyson didn’t seem interested in getting involved in any trash-talking – or indeed in saying much at all. “I’m just ready to fight,” was about as far as he was prepared to go, despite multiple attempts to engage him.
Paul, who has organised this event through his company Most Valuable Promotions, was much more provocative. He even showed up wearing a diamond-studded piece of jewellery over his right ear.
“I’m not getting my s—- bit off on Friday night,” he said, in an allusion to Tyson’s cannibalistic disqualification against Evander Holyfield in 1997. “So I’ve got my diamond-spiked ear covers right there.”
In the end, Tyson’s refusal to cooperate with the media game became awkward, and clearly annoyed Paul – who went around at the end of the press conference taking bets from several undercard boxers who had predicted that he would lose.
“You guys wanna do this, put your money where your mouth is,” Paul said, after the other fighters had come down 9-3 in Tyson’s favour. “How much do you want to bet? How much do you want to lose? The time I spend taking a s— is the amount of money you make in your entire life.”
Asked by Helwani what he thought about Tyson’s lack of engagement, Paul replied “Man, there’s a lot of s— talk online saying you’re gonna kill me, and nothing in person. It’s pretty f—ing boring.”
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