Mike Tyson has appeared to put blame on himself for the increase in YouTube boxing fights after Jake Paul fought on the undercard of his comeback.
The legendary heavyweight has been an advocate for YouTube boxing in the past and has spoken of his fondness for the Paul brothers who fight at the centre of it.
He staged an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr in 2020 with Paul fighting on the undercard against Nate Robinson.
Tyson has now admitted that his original plan was to create the opportunity for enjoyment but turned against the idea of competing again after it was made "financial".
“I’m not even interested in doing this stuff. It’s fun," Tyson said when asked about a fight with Paul on the FULL SEND podcast.
"If it was back when I first started, yes, and we were both fighting on the same card, we were both active, yeah I would do it. But it’s just turned out bad, it’s not going to turn out right.
"I wanted to do it the first time just for fun, other people took it to the financial level and I didn't enjoy it anymore."
Tyson staged a hugely successful event on Triller against Jones Jr that generated huge interest in seeing their ring return.
The promotion label have since staged events including Fight Club cards that featured Evander Holyfield's farcical stoppage at the hands of Vitor Belfort.
They have also since began staging Triad Combat cards which is a mixture of boxing and MMA rules that has featured Kubrat Pulev.
YouTube boxing has also been on the rise with Paul generating over £30million from crossover bouts with Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren in 2021.
Meanwhile Jake's brother Logan took part in another high-profile exhibition against Floyd Mayweather.
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Tyson was reported to have verbally agreed a deal to face Paul in an exhibition clash.
However the legendary heavyweight quickly moved to deny any knowledge of talks taking place before casting further doubt on any future boxing exploits.
Despite appearing to take the blame for the current rise in YouTube boxing, Tyson had previously suggested he had an idea to stage influencer tournaments to promote the "changing of the guard".
"No, no, this is what gets guys of age upset, because the changing of the guard is hard to understand, they don't want to understand," Tyson explained on his HotBoxin' podcast.
"Just imagine this, ten years from now; I want to have all the YouTube boxers have a tournament and find out who will be the champion of the world, of that world.
"But that's what they do, they have another belt, it'll be whatever belt they want it to be, and then they put that up against the boxing belt. It's all hype, hype sells fights, fights don't sell fights, hype sells fights."
