While the fight purses have not been officially disclosed, Paul claimed at a press conference in August: “I’m here to make $40m and knock out a legend.”

"Yeah I had all of that [comeback offers]," former British heavyweight champion Julius Francis tells Talk Sport. “There was all of this to have a fight again with Mike Tyson. All of this like 'get you a rematch with him' and stuff like that.

“Yes it would be nice, the money-side of it. But I say for me personally, the integrity and being able to live with yourself. At the end of the day you have to sell your soul, and I don’t think it is really for me.

“I could jump back in the ring, but I couldn’t do anything near what I could and there are limits. Tyson has got himself into shape for a 58-year-old but when you are fighting a 27-year-old the downside is he could be tired after a few rounds. He should be able to destroy Paul but old injuries could come back and that's the danger."

Jake Paul lost his cool at the press conference for his fight with Mike Tyson, making numerous $1m bets with undercard boxers who predicted he will lose.

Mike Tyson has backed Tyson Fury to gain revenge on Oleksandr Usyk in their heavyweight rematch in December.

“Usyk is the best heavyweight in the world at the moment. But I’m going for Fury to beat him,” Tyson told the Mail.

“Why? Because I’m a fan. Because his father gave him my name. I’m not abandoning him now.”

“[Tyson] is older now, I pray that he comes out healthy,” Joshua said on The Jonathan Ross Show this week. “I think Jake Paul [wins] because of youth, that’s the only thing.”

Speaking about influencer boxing more generally, the former heavyweight champion added: “I personally think it’s really good. I think the boxing hardcores, they don’t like it, because they think, ‘Why are they disrespecting our sport?’

“But I think that [influencer] brings all these people into boxing, which benefits everyone else. Everyone viewing helps.”

Tony Bellew crashed the press conference for Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson on Wednesday, holding a “Fisher Price” microphone as he was accompanied by an old man in boxing gloves – before the pair were kicked out.

Britain’s Bellew, a former world champion, was in the crowd wearing a t-shirt showing the logo of a betting site, and he was standing alongside an older man in a boxing robe and gloves. Bellew also had a microphone, with which he spoke over a journalist who was asking a question inside Toyota Music Factory.

Mike Tyson wasn’t in the mood for talking in the final news conference before the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion faces YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

Tyson had terse answers for all the questions Wednesday night, two nights before the fight against Paul, who is 31 years younger, at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

“I’ve said everything I had to say,” Tyson said in one of several attempts to get him to say more. “I’m just looking forward to fighting.”

“It’s cute,” Paul said of the terse Tyson. “I fear no man, so I want him to be that old savage Mike.”

Paul couldn’t even get Tyson to respond by wearing what the 27-year-old said was a “diamond-spiked ear cover.” It was Paul’s jab at Tyson over the Hall of Famer infamously biting the ear of Evander Holyfield in a 1997 fight.

Tyson did get briefly riled up when somebody asked twice what he would do if he lost. His last sanctioned bout was in 2005. Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition four years ago.

“I am not going to lose,” Tyson said, his voice rising the second time it was asked. “Did you hear what I said?”

Jake Paul has trolled Mike Tyson by wearing a $100,000 ear cover in reference to the former heavyweight world champion’s infamous history with biting opponents.

Reports suggest the item from Vobara is worth six figures, with Paul acquiring it ahead of Friday’s bout on Netflix.

Paul made reference to protecting his ear in a swipe related to Tyson and his notorious move to chew down on rival Evander Holyfield’s ear in their 1997 heavyweight rematch.

“There’s nothing nice about me,” Mike Tyson said, speaking to The Independent and other publications over Zoom, two weeks before his fight with Jake Paul.

“I’m not a nice person. I’m a decent person, I try to do the right thing. But a nice person, I am not. Anybody with the [idea] that I’m a nice person is gonna be disappointed. I’m just not. I don’t make people happy for no reason, I’m just who I am. I’m not trying to gain friends, that’s basically what I’m saying.

“I don’t want to make friends with you, I don’t care if you put me on your yacht, I don’t give a f***. I’m not gonna ever be nice to nobody; I’ll be kind, but never nice.”

Full interview:

There is no hate, no love, the gloves are big and the rounds will be short when Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight on Friday night.

Tyson is 58 now, reformed, grey at the edges, his eyes have softened with his belly and each attempt at spitting venom sounds fake. Well, it probably is, so what? He was once Iron Mike, the youngest heavyweight champion in history, so please show some respect.

Paul, in his own unique way, has single-handedly ruined the boxing careers of many UFC stars and exposed them inside the boxing ring as flat-footed swingers; now the former child performer is hunting down faded kings of the ring. It is the unmade Rocky movie with a twist: can the old king beat the young kid? It’s the age-old boxing tale.

But here’s what you don’t understand about the fight...

Read Steve Bunce’s preview in full: