Israel Adesanya and Mike Tyson agree Jake Paul's move into boxing has had a positive effect on the sport.
The UFC middleweight champion joined legendary boxer Tyson on his podcast Hot Boxin' recently to discuss a number of topics, when Paul's name was brought into the discussion. The pair had been in attendance for the YouTuber's second professional bout against Nate Robinson, where he landed a vicious second round knockout.
Tyson was competing in the main event of that card in his comeback fight with Roy Jones Jr, while Adesanya was one of the limited number of people allowed to attend as a commentator. He joined Snoop Dogg and Sugar Ray Leonard on the announce desk, before celebrating with Paul in California after the fact.
And speaking about the social media star in more detail, Adesanya said: "My guy Jake, I like Jake, he's cool. I'm trying to link up with him. I don't know where he is, he's everywhere, Puerto Rico, LA. We should link up while I'm out here.
"I like Jake, I like what he's doing with the fight game, what he does with his promoting, now he's being mr promoter Jake Paul and that's good for him. A lot of people didn't like the fact that he jumped in the game and started getting all of this attention. I didn't know who he really was properly."
And Tyson was in agreement, adding that he had spent time over New Years with the social media star in St Bart's before adding that he had attracted millions of fans to the sport. He added: "I love the fact that he [grabbed people's attention in fighting].
"Everybody says 'really Mike?' but they don't understand, boxing needs that - at this stage in boxing the greatest fighters are not fighting each other so boxing needs a guy like this. When Jake Paul fights he brings 75million people to the box office, not to the arena, but to the box office. He's a baller."
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Tyson has been a long outspoken fan of both Jake and his brother Logan's forays into the boxing world. He has been rumoured to be a potential opponent for both, and promised that he would beat both fighters if the fight were to be made.
"I'll beat their f***ing ass, I'm coming straight at 'em," the boxing champion said when the possible match-up was put to him, despite having previously priced himself out of the bout. "I'm not going to underestimate them either but I'm going to be in shape.
"That's the thing you've got to do is be in shape. I think 30 days of boxing I could fight anybody, 30 days of boxing every day. If I'm boxing every day in the gym I don't have to worry about my diet, I'll eat whatever I want."
