Mike Tyson slapped with $1.6M lawsuit for contract violation following Jake Paul fight

Mike Tyson (L) during the fight with Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, U.S, on Nov. 15, 2024. Photo by AP

Medier, a Cyprus-based company, accused Tyson and his company Tyrannic of breaking a January contract on the day the Netflix special was announced in March, citing a scheduling conflict and claiming a breach of the agreement, so they filed a $1.6 million lawsuit in London's High Court of Justice in October.

"The true reason for Mr. Tyson and Tyrannic’s hasty and unlawful termination was because Mr. Tyson had agreed a deal, sponsored by Netflix, to fight the influencer Jake Paul," the company’s lawyer wrote in documents released on Friday," Medier's wrote in documents released on Friday.

Tyson's team later responded to the accusations via New York Post.

"It is the company's position that Medier, Ltd. materially breached the terms of its license agreement on multiple occasions and in various ways. As such, Tyrannic, LLC was well within its legal and contractual rights to terminate the license agreement for material breach in an effort to mitigate additional reputational harm to the Tyson brand."

This is just one of many controversies surrounding the Tyson-Paul fight. Previously, a Florida citizen named Ronald 'Blue' Denton sued Netflix for "breach of contract" for constant glitches and disconnections throughout the streaming of the event.

The integrity of the fight was also questioned, as Tyson, one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in history, landed only 18 punches in eight rounds. Social media also shared moments of the former heavyweight champion not attacking even though Paul's face was exposed.

Amid the heated controversy, MVP, the boxing promotion company co-founded by Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, denied that the fight was fixed. MVP also claimed that the accusations were "incorrect and baseless".

On Nov. 15, Jake Paul won on points in what was considered the most controversial match in boxing history at the AT&T Arena in Texas, U.S. The American YouTuber threw 278 punches and landed 78, a 28% rate, while Tyson only landed 18, a 19% rate. With no knockouts after eight rounds, the judges scored the fight 80-72, 79-73, 79-73 in favor of Paul.

Tyson pocketed at least $20 million, less than half of what Paul earned from this fight, according to CBS News. Although being a lesser-known fighter than Tyson, Paul is a social media star with 27 million followers on Instagram alone. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Paul's net worth is $80 million, compared to Tyson's $10 million.