Mike Tyson and Kamaru Usman discussed how hate has helped boxers like Floyd Mayweather, and more recently, Jake Paul, to sell their fights. Tyson is set to take on Paul in a professional boxing match scheduled for Nov. 15.
The 58-year-old recently appeared on the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry podcast and addressed the criticism about the massive age gap between him and Paul. Tyson claimed that he feels young and disagreed with people dismissing his chances because he is at a certain age. He implied that Paul calling him out for a fight was probably a "blessing" that would allow him to show that he is still competitive.
"By the grace of God, this guy, Jake Paul came around."
When podcast co-host Henry Cejudo asked to elaborate on his thoughts on Paul, and whether his promotional tactics made a difference financially, Tyson said:
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
"Because he made noise and he caused people to hate him. There is no bigger finance than hate. Hate sells more than love. But love is more powerful than hate."
Co-host Kamaru Usman chimed in with his thoughts on Tyson's statement and said Floyd Mayweather also weaponized hatred similar to Paul.
I feel that... And at some point, even some of the biggest guys, business and purse wise and gate wise, have understood this. I think Floyd [Mayweather] understood this. At one point, where he realized... Yes, his style might not have been friendly to watch because, of course, everybody, the spectators, they want to see violence. They all want to see blood, even though they're not willing to risk it themselves."
Check out Mike Tyson and Kamaru Usman's comments below (13:15):
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson could be a huge success on the streaming platform
Although controversial due to the massive age gap between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, the fight has enjoyed a lot of attention from the combat sports community. The event will take place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and broadcast globally on popular streaming platform Netflix.
A recent post by @BoxingKingdom14 analyzed Netflix subscribers' data and speculated that approximately 250 million people will have access to the live event, potentially resulting in hundreds of millions watching the live action on Nov. 15.
“260 million households subscribe to Netflix. Assuming 2 people per household, which is conservative, that means our audience is over 500M”.
Check out the post below:
Despite the massive figures claimed, the numbers appear to be speculative as the study cannot predict the number of boxing fans in the Netflix subscriber pool who would tune in to watch the fight.