Jake Paul fights Mike Tyson in the main event of the Tyson vs. Paul fight card Friday | Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
The Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight is almost here.
Mike Tyson and Jake Paul meet in the ring Friday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in a showdown that could be the most-watched fight in boxing history.
The main card of the Tyson vs. Paul event will be televised on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET. It will have three fights before Tyson vs. Paul:
Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 2 rematch (10 rounds)
Mario Barrios vs. Abel Ramos (12 rounds)
Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes (6 rounds)
The Tyson vs. Paul main event walkout will likely not happen until 11:30 p.m.-12 a.m. ET due to the length of the previous fights.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson (50-6, 2 NC) hasn’t fought since an exhibition draw with legend Roy Jones Jr. on Nov. 28, 2020. The 58-year-old hasn’t had a professional fight in almost 20 years when he quit at the end of the sixth round against Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005.
Jake Paul (10-1) is coming off a sixth-round knockout win of BKFC star Mike Perry on July 20, 2024. He has won four fights in a row.
Stipe Miocic will answer questions during UFC 309 media day. | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
The UFC 309 media day is the first official stop for fight week festivities in New York City.
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, former UFC champion Charles Oliveira, and Michael Chandler are just a few of the athletes who will answer questions Wednesday morning.
Jon Jones | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
The biggest weekend of the month is finally here!
It’s a combat sports double-header this weekend as on Friday, Jake Paul faces Mike Tyson in their specialty boxing match in Arlington, Texas, and then on Saturday Jon Jones finally defends his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309. So with so much action, No Bets Barred returns to break it all down.
MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew dives deep into both fight cards on this mega-weekend, with betting breakdowns for all the best action. Topics discussed include how bad Jones vs. Miocic will be, whether Tyson has any chance against Jake Paul, Michael Chandler’s odds of avenging his previous loss to Charles Oliveira, the latest update on THE CLIMB, and much more.
Tune in for episode 108 of No Bets Barred.
New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.
Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
Jake Paul and Mike Tyson are just days away from meeting in one of the most talked-about boxing events in recent history with the fight taking place at AT&T Stadium just outside Dallas.
The cavernous stadium, which usually serves as the home to the Dallas Cowboys, typically seats around 80,000 people but with additional seats on the field level, that number could balloon up to 100,000. For the upcoming card, Paul’s company Most Valuable Promotions decided to team up with ticket brokers at SeatGeek for sales rather than going through Ticketmaster.
A quick look at the map reveals that there are still plenty of tickets available to the event with seating anywhere from down on the floor close to the ring all the way up to the rafters in the nose bleeds.
The lowest priced regular seat is currently settling for $ 50 in section 408, which is the top level of AT&T Stadium. Most of the lower priced seats are actually in a few different sections on one half of the stadium. There is a single handicap seat available for $ 38, which is technically the lowest priced ticket available right now.
Now if you move down one section lower, tickets get a little pricier but still only around $ 90 each, depending on the row. The prices continue to vary as you get closer and closer to the ring.
As far as floor seats, there are still a smattering of tickets available but once again prices vary depending on location. The closet seat currently available that’s not a resale ticket sits in the fourth row — currently only one actually available — and that costs $ 7,500.
Scoot back four rows from almost the exact same vantage point and the price drops to $ 2,623 for the tickets currently available.
Based on the current map, there is actually one ringside seat available from Seatgeek as a special VIP package that costs a whopping $ 50,000. Another VIP package seated in the second row is going for $ 12,500 right now.
There are other VIP floor seats going for $ 20,000 for some tickets with others going as low as $ 3,500 if you’re willing to sit in the fifth row.
Now other resale sites like Ticketmaster and Stubhub could have different options available as far as ringside or floor seats.
It also must be noted that as the event draws closer and organizers look for a sold out crowd, ticket prices could potentially change, especially with resellers looking to dump those seats rather than eating the cost of the tickets that have already been purchased.
It’s unknown at this time if MVP plans to announce the full live gate for the show.
Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
Mike Tyson clearly wants to let his fists do the talking for him.
The former heavyweight champion came face-to-face with Jake Paul during their first fight week faceoff on Wednesday but Tyson was a man of few words during the question and answer period. The 58-year-old fighter had no interest in getting drawn into a war of words with Paul, who was sitting just a few feet away from him on stage.
“I’m just ready to fight,” Tyson said. “I’ve said everything I had to say. There’s nothing else to say. I’m just looking forward to fighting.”
The stoic Tyson stayed stone-faced as he stared down Paul, who returned the favor after offering his prediction that the fight wouldn’t make it to the final bell.
“Someone’s getting put to sleep,” Paul said. “It’s going to be a war. We’re both heavy hitters. It’s not going the full 16 minutes.”
While he didn’t get drawn into a fiery faceoff with Paul during the press conference, Tyson did offer one rebuke to a reporter who asked him what would he lose if he lost this fight on Friday.
In response, Tyson got a little more animated while offering up a promise that he wasn’t going to fall to Paul no matter what.
“I’m not going to lose,” Tyson said. “I am not going to lose. Did you hear what I said?”
Paul and Tyson will face off again on Thursday after the weigh-ins with the fight now just 48 hours away with the event airing live on Netflix from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson press conference will have all of the fighters in Friday’s blockbuster event in Irving, Texas.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Jake Paul, Katie Taylor, and Amanda Serrano will all speak to the media and the fans for the final time at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on Tuesday evening.
The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson press conference is expected to begin at 7 p.m. ET.
Jon Jones slammed the door on any chance that he’ll ever fight Tom Aspinall but it turns out his reasoning is much more personal that he originally stated.
As he prepared for his return against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, Jones said numerous times that he wasn’t interested in Aspinall because the fight didn’t really do much in terms of his career or legacy. On Tuesday, Jones doubled down on why he’s not interested in Aspinall as an opponent but then he blasted the British born heavyweight for his attitude in trying to make the fight happen.
“If I’m being completely honest, I feel like Tom’s been such an assh*le that I don’t want to do business with him,” Jones said during UFC 309 media day. “His fans have been so annoying and obviously you don’t get this far in a career being affected by fans or what not, but he’s just an assh*le. He’s 30 so he’s from this influencer generation where you hop online with the t-shirt sales and all that. I’m past that type of stuff. I’m like bro if you had a little bit more respect then maybe we could have something out. I just don’t even want to do business with him.
“At the end of the day, this is a business. Fighting me gives him the opportunity to change his life forever. I don’t even want to give him the opportunity. He just played his cards wrong with me personally. I’m three years from being a 40-year-old grown man. The press conference, going through the whole shebang with him, I’d rather not do.”
Aspinall has been rather vocal about his disdain for Jones fighting Miocic on Saturday rather than facing him as the interim heavyweight champion. When he addressed the matchup on his YouTube channel just ahead of UFC 309, Aspinall called Jones and Miocic “two old farts” who are fighting for the “most disputed title” in the promotion right now.
What was largely an argument about competition has now turned into name calling with a whole lot of trash talk and Jones just wants no part of it.
On the flipside, Jones looks at a potential matchup against somebody like UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira that checks every box he wants as far as an opponent to keep him going after he faces Miocic on Saturday.
Pereira has already won titles in two different divisions in the UFC, he’s a former GLORY kickboxing champion and now arguably one of the biggest stars on the entire roster. Add to that, Jones feels like Pereira has been very respectful towards him and that might be the one trait that matters most right now.
“Pereira on the other side — respectful, cool, barely says much. I’ll do business with you,” Jones said. “I would risk it all with a human being like you. You actually have the accolades to back up your shit. The other guy is just a big mouth who’s hot today.
“There’s been so many guys who’s hot today who are just gone. Sergei [Pavlovich] was in the same position not too long ago and now he’s starting to fall off already. I’ve just been around this sport too long to give a big mouth who’s hot today the opportunity.”
As much as he dislikes Aspinall as a person, Jones understands the narrative being built up around the interim heavyweight champion as a serious threat to his nearly unblemished resume.
Maybe that’s true but Jones also knows there have been plenty of fighters just like that throughout his career who were supposed to be his equal.
“I get that Tom is an exciting fighter,” Jones said. “I get that finally after 16 years we found somebody who is seven years younger than me and 30 pounds bigger than me, we finally found someone who may give me a great challenge and everyone wants to see it so bad. For me, what’s in it for me? He changes nothing if I beat him.
“Beating Tom is just like beating Ciryl Gane. Has a whole country behind him, he’s hot right now — what happens to me after I beat him? Nothing changes for me.”
Jones can’t predict what happens after UFC 309 but assuming he gets through Miocic, he’s given the organization the fight and the opponent that would keep him around for a little while longer.
If the UFC is adamant on making the fight against Aspinall then Jones has no problem just calling it career and riding off into the sunset.
“The main goal is to get past Stipe. If I can do it in a really dominant, devastating fashion then the desire in my heart would be like OK, now it’s Alex Pereira,” Jones said. “If the UFC doesn’t want that to happen because ultimately it’s the boss’ decision, then it won’t happen and I’ll just move on with my life.
“One of the ways I look at it is would you guys rather lose me or get one more super fight and the only super fight that makes sense to me — not to everyone else but to me and my team — is Alex Pereira.”
Don’t expect Stipe Miocic to get drawn into a war of words with Jon Jones.
With just days remaining until they meet in the UFC 309 main event, the seemingly respectful showdown took an odd turn after UFC Countdown aired prior to fight week. In the feature, Miocic said “bring it on, bitch” when addressing Jones and that apparently upset the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, who took to social media to fire back at his upcoming opponent.
“Hiring black fighters to mimic me will not help you, Stipe,” Jones wrote. “And you shouldn’t have called me a bitch, the disrespect wasn’t necessary. Let’s play.”
Hiring black fighters to mimic me will not help you Stipe. And you shouldn’t have called me a bitch, the disrespect wasn’t necessary. Let’s play. #UFCcountdown
— BONY (@JonnyBones) November 11, 2024
Miocic has no idea why Jones got so rattled by such an innocuous comment, but he’s not spending a lot of time thinking about it.
“I keep talking about that,” Miocic said during UFC 309 media day. “He was literally telling everyone he was going to beat my ass. I’m almost positive. Did he not say that before [I called him a bitch]? Sorry. Talk shit about me but whatever.”
If anything got Miocic heated it was Jones’ claim that he was “hiring Black fighters” to help him prepare for the fight.
“That was bullshit because they’re my teammates,” Miocic said. “They’re like, ‘We’re not getting paid?’ Apparently, I’m hiring people, too. Whatever.”
Throughout his career, Jones has engaged in a few tense rivalries, perhaps none uglier than his longstanding feud with Daniel Cormier. He also went through something similar with former teammate Rashad Evans after Jones became UFC champion while they were originally training under the same coaches.
Perhaps Jones’ comments towards Miocic are a way to get him more amped up for the fight or maybe it’s just a promotional tool to stir up more pay-per-view buys. Whatever the case, Miocic doesn’t really care much about what Jones has to say about him.
“Maybe [that’s what he needs to get motivated], maybe not,” Miocic said. “I don’t know what he’s thinking but some of the stuff, I’m just like OK. I literally had no idea [what he said] until somebody told me. It’s funny. It’s just comical. It’s actually very funny.”
It turns out his philosophy of not paying much attention to what’s said about him was an epiphany for Miocic that changed his career forever.
In the past, he admits that off-handed comments from fighters or fans would get under his skin, but Miocic learned over time that none of it really matters.
“In the beginning of my career, I was a little sensitive about it,” Miocic said. “You don’t know me, I don’t know you but why are you saying shit like that to me? I would get terrible [direct messages] and stuff. Like what is wrong with you? You don’t know me.
“But I literally just stopped caring because I realized, they don’t know me, I don’t know them. They’re just pissed off about something and they’re just trying to take it out on me. I could care less honestly. It’s the best thing I ever did in my life.”
Just because he doesn’t give fiery comments any oxygen doesn’t mean that Miocic has escaped that kind of vitriol coming his way. The difference these days, much like with what Jones had to say about him, is that Miocic pretty much just ignores it and moves on.
“You get hate all the time,” Miocic said. “You get DMs all the time [saying,] ‘You’re a piece of shit, I hope you die.’ Whatever. It is what it is.”
Alexander Volkanovski is adding his name to the list of fighters signing off on a future Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall fight.
Though Jones defends his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 this Saturday, it’s interim champion Aspinall who has claimed many of the headlines as he has pursued a fight with Jones for the past year. Jones and Miocic were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 295 in November 2024, but when a pectoral injury forced Jones out of the contest, Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich were called upon to fight for an interim title. Aspinall went on to defeat Pavlovich by 69-second knocokut.
Since then, there have been calls for Jones to fight Aspinall in a unification bout—much to Jones’ chagrin—but he and the UFC prioritized the Miocic re-booking. Breaking down the UFC 309 main event on his YouTube channel, Volkanovski made the case for Jones having to fight Aspinall should he defeat Miocic.
“I’m sure Jon Jones is sick of hearing this, but the Tom Aspinall fight is the fight everyone wants to see,” Volkanovski said. “You want to be a heavyweight champion, you want to claim that crown—that might sound wrong, because you did claim it. It was a vacant belt and you fought [Ciryl] Gane for it and you got it, but it’s going to be hard to convince me you’re defending champ if you don’t fight Tom Aspinall while he’s the interim champ and the biggest threat.
“Does Jon Jones even need to do this? No, he’s already got an incredible legacy. But if you want to claim the heavyweight division, so you were a proper double champ… you’ve got to fight Tom Aspinall. If you really want that on your résumé saying that I’m the best heavyweight while I was here, you have to fight Tom Aspinall. I think he is definitely the biggest threat. The wrestling, everywhere, he can be dangerous everywhere, and he’s a legit heavyweight. Explosive, fast. That’s the fight that I hope to see.”
Rather than discuss a potential fight with Aspinall, Jones has mentioned light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira as an opponent he’d like to face. In short time, Pereira has become one of the UFC’s most popular fighters, winning titles at 185 and 205 pounds, and flirting with the idea of jumping up one more division to become the promotion’s first triple champion.
Volkanovski sees the appeal in Jones vs. Pereira, but still wants to see interim champion get the fight that he deserves.
“What he gets out of beating [Aspinall] would be, I think for most of us, the guys that are in the know, that would be huge,” Volkanovski said. “But when you’re talking money and things like that and star power, I win over Pereira right now would be massive. That’s probably one of the biggest fights you could do right now, so I can see why he’s pointed there, but get rid of the heavyweight belt then. … The interim champ’s there, you need to fight him and that’s just how it is.”
As for how the action unfolds on fight night, Volkanovski is going with the favored Jones to take care of business. In 29 pro bouts, Jones’ only blemishes are disqualification loss to Matt Hamill in a bout that he dominated from start to finish, and a July 2017 bout with Daniel Cormier that was overturned from a Jones knockout win to a no-contest when Jones later tested positive for a banned substance.
Miocic also brings an impressive list of accolades with him to Madison Square Garden. The Cleveland native holds the record for most successful UFC heavyweight title defenses (4) and has knocked out a list of legends, including Daniel Cormier, Junior dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski, and Mark Hunt. However, Miocic has not competed since a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in March 2021 and at 42 years old, his best days are behind him.
In a battle of legends, Volkanovski sees Jones coming out on top in convincing fashion.
“I love Stipe, but Jon Jones is going to be too good in this one,” Volkanovski said. “You can’t bet against him, and I think it probably will be a finish. Could be a submission, could be a TKO. Do I think it’s a one-punch knockout? No. Does he hurt him? Knees to the body, just breaking him properly down, like buckle his legs, knees, or bust his ribs, just painful TKO if that makes sense.
“Like, boom, boom, boom, and then trying to protect himself because he’s really hurt and the ref has to just stop it. I can see something like that happen. And I can see that happening maybe in the first few rounds, first couple of rounds even, maybe second-round TKO for Jon Jones.”
David Onama | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
David Onama is staying on UFC 309.
Officials announced Wednesday that newcomer Roberto Romero (8-3-1) has signed on to fight Onama (12-2) on the preliminary portion of this Saturday’s event in New York on less than a week’s notice. Romero replaces Lucas Almeida, who was forced off the card due to medical issues, according to UFC.
Romero’s management was first to make the signing public.
We’re very pleased & excited to announce that #TeamIridium beast Roberto Romero is taking his talents to the @ufc’s Octagon & will debut Saturday at #UFC309 ✍ #TheDarkside pic.twitter.com/t4hN0CgaNi
— IridiumSportsAgency (@TeamIridiumISA) November 13, 2024
Onama was originally scheduled to fight Almeida at 145 pounds, but the new matchup will be contested at 155 pounds to accommodate the last-second change.
Romero, 24, was a standout in Combate Global, winning six of his eight fights for the promotion. Most recently, he finished Takahiro Ashida via first-round rear-naked choke this past July.
Onama has emerged as an intriguing name in the featherweight division. He is coming off of back-to-back wins over Jonathan Pearce and Gabriel Santos, and has won four of his past five fights.
UFC 309 is headlined by heavyweight champion Jon Jones defending his title against the returning Stipe Miocic.
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