Money was being gambled at historic levels when Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson in what many considered a sham of a fight that featured a 58-year-old decades past his prime and a 27-year-old YouTuber with questionable motives.
Could this all be setting up for a precedent-defining lawsuit?
One sports attorney believes several factors could lead to legal action.
“It wouldn’t shock me one bit to see a lawsuit filed on this fight,” Dan Lust, a Sports Attorney at Moritt Hock & Hamrott and Law Professor at New York Law School, told The Post.
Paul fought Tyson to a snoozer of an eight-round decision win, where the former heavyweight champ appeared to be struggling to stand as many criticized Paul for carrying him to the finish.
It appeared Paul could’ve won by knockout at his convenience, as Tyson looked wobbly in the later rounds.
Paul seemingly admitted as much after the fight, telling reporters he “didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Another complicating factor is that boxers are not paid if the fight doesn’t happen.
As Tyson dealt with a litany of medical issues in the lead-up to the fight, one could argue that the fight was put on so the two could grab their cash and get out unscathed.
When asked whether he took his foot off the peddle, Paul responded, “Yeah, definitely,” and that he “wanted to give the fan’s a show.”
He was asked a follow-up question about whether he carried Tyson.
Paul responded, “Yeah a little bit. There was a point where I was like ‘OK, he’s not really engaging back.’ And so I don’t know if he is tired or hurt or whatever, and I could just tell that his age was showing a little bit and I just have so much respect for him and that violence, war thing between us … kind of went away as the rounds went on.”
The only problem with that is the fight received four times the betting interest than any other boxing match, with the fight’s most likely outcome in terms of betting odds being Paul to win by knockout (+125).
“I watched the fight very closely, lines were skewing toward knockouts … because logically it would point toward ‘Tyson is too old to take a big punch’ or ‘Jake hasn’t felt someone with Tyson’s power,’” Lust said.
Lust noted that Paul’s comments about not wanting to hurt Tyson would have been fine had he couched them to just the eighth round, since the final moments wouldn’t have put the entire fight in jeopardy.
Since he did not, Lust said that a can of worms was opened up, fueling what was already poor optics through the entire bout.
“The expectation was this was going to be a real fight sanctioned by Texas,” Lust told The Post. “They are telling you this is not an exhibition.”
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) sanctioned this as an official fight where the two combatants would fight in a true boxing match.
That didn’t pass the eye test, though.
Tyson’s last boxing endeavor against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020 was not sanctioned as a real fight in California and instead was classified as an exhibition.
“Paul taking bows and not fighting to the last minute, the optics are just odd,” Lust said. “Would it shock me if there was a class action lawsuit? No. It’s not on me to form one but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one.”
Lust adds that any lawsuit involving sports betting up until now has been unsuccessful.
“‘You know what you are getting into when betting’ has been the interpretation up until this point,” Lust said.
Just this year, many bettors questioned whether they could sue when Christian McCaffrey sat out Week 1 against the Jets after backup Jordan Mason told reporters he knew he would be starting for McCaffrey days before.
One bettor also attempted to sue Major League Baseball regarding the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, since MLB knew enough about the Astros’ sign-stealing endeavors to conduct a private investigation.
However, Lust says this potential case has a bit more legs given Paul’s role going beyond that of a competitor.
“The precedent is set nationally that if you sue as a gambler or fan, you don’t have a chance to win. They generally get thrown out because courts have held that the plaintiffs don’t have standing to sue. In this particular framework, the promoter is the fighter. All of a sudden (Tyson) gets magically healthy enough to fight, looking like a shell of himself compared to training videos.”
In those other professional sports, athletes still get paid whether they play in any given week or not.
It’s important to note, as Lust noted, that Paul doesn’t get paid if the fight does not happen.
Paul said he had made $40 million to fight Tyson.
The second layer is a governing league with protocols for injuries and rule sets.
In this case, Paul is the promoter and fighter who helped make up unconventional rules for the fight.
Paul-Tyson had different-sized gloves, shorter and fewer rounds in order to sell to the public that the boxing legend could hang with the YouTube star.
Tyson was forced into the hospital in May thanks to a stomach ulcer, which threatened whether the fight would ever happen but was eventually moved from July to Nov. 15.
Tyson also revealed that in June, he needed blood transfusions and nearly died in the lead-up to the fight.
The question now becomes whether the fight should’ve been sanctioned by the TLDR.
“People trusted that the fight was properly sanctioned. Otherwise, the general population wouldn’t have bet on it,” Lust said.
Lust was keen to add that just because a class action lawsuit is filed, it doesn’t mean the intent is to win.
In fact, he says that any class action suit could just be a publicity stunt by a law firm to gain notoriety.
“I’m not aware of any precedent directly on point to this unique set of facts,” Lust said. “It screams that it should’ve been an exhibition but it wasn’t. We wouldn’t question the outcome, but since it was a sanctioned fight in Texas, bettors relied on that.”
Millions — and perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars — were wagered on this fight, as BetMGM and ESPN BET reported that this was by far the most bet-on boxing event in their histories.
BetMGM told The Post Monday that four times more money came in on this event compared to any other combat sports event, including UFC.
With that amount of money flying around, the class action lawsuit could encompass all parties who stood to gain mass profits, according to Lust.
He told The Post that this would include the TLDR, who sanctioned the event, as well as Netflix, Paul and perhaps even Jerry Jones, who was the host at his AT&T Stadium.