Butterbean says the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul fight was rigged and that both men should have their licenses pulled, adding on the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast with JBL and Gerald Brisco that he personally would knock Tyson out if they ever fought.
“Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, both should be suspended for at least a year, and their licenses pulled for rigging a fight, because that was the most rigged fight I’ve ever seen in my life.”
He was dismissive of Paul’s legitimacy as a boxer, acknowledging some improvement but stopping well short of crediting him as a real fighter.
“He can’t fight. He got better, but he’s not a true boxer. He can’t fight.”
As for Tyson, Butterbean’s opinion was no gentler. He said Tyson cannot take a punch and that his camp spent years ducking him for exactly that reason.
“I would love to fight Mike Tyson still, and I would knock him out because he can’t take a punch. They were not going to let Tyson fight anybody that had the punching power like I had, and I wasn’t afraid of him. Mike’s not a big guy. He’s 220. He’s not a big guy.”
Butterbean said Bob Arum spent years trying to make the fight happen through negotiations with Don King, but nothing ever materialized. He believes the avoidance was intentional.
He backed up his current confidence by pointing to time spent sparring with Buster Mathis Jr., who trained under the same system as Tyson and moves identically. Once Butterbean figured out the movement pattern, he said he could land at will.
“I got to where I could hit Mathis whenever I wanted to. They weren’t going to put Tyson in with anybody that hit like me.”
He also used Peter McNeeley as evidence that Tyson’s mystique had cracks. Butterbean noted that McNeeley, who fought Tyson in 1995, showed that an unafraid opponent disrupted Tyson’s entire game plan, and that Tyson’s corner actually stopped the fight rather than Tyson finishing it.
“If you went at Tyson like you were unafraid of him, Mike didn’t know what to do, because Mike never really knocked McNeeley out. McNeeley’s corner stopped the fight. Mike never knocked him out. I stopped McNeeley quicker than Tyson’s fight. My fight was shorter than Tyson’s fight.”
Butterbean said he is currently at 285 pounds, down from a peak of over 530, and is in the best physical condition he has been in years following a health transformation that included work with DDP.
“I’m 285 right now. I could fight tomorrow. But I’d want two months to train for a big fight like a Tyson fight.”
The Tyson versus Jake Paul fight took place in November 2024. Tyson lost by unanimous decision.
The full interview is available on the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast.
