Dan Hardy doubts Jake Paul’s fight with Mike Tyson will go ahead.
Earlier this year, the YouTuber-turned-boxer shocked the world when he announced his plan to face Tyson at the AT&T Stadium in Texas on July 20.
It was soon confirmed that the bout would be professionally sanctioned, and ‘Iron Mike’ would be ending his long retirement, which began following a KO loss to Kevin McBride 19 years ago.
However, Tyson recently suffered an ‘ulcer flare up’ while travelling from Miami to Los Angeles, and his comeback was delayed until November 15.
Hardy had his doubts about the fight taking place before it was pushed back.
The former UFC title challenger predicted that ‘something would happen’ to cancel the fight days before Tyson suffered a scary mid-flight medical issue.
“It’s a weird match-up,” Hardy told talkSPORT’s MMA YouTube channel.
“I’ll be honest, I’ll be surprised if it actually happens. I think there’s a lot of days between now and then for something to happen and the fight to not take place.”
Despite having doubts about the match-up, Hardy branded Paul a ‘mastermind marketer’ for choosing Tyson as his next opponent.
He added: “This for me is Jake Paul, the mastermind marketer, because he had a couple of fights against people no one was really interested in, and he lost a bit of momentum in the limelight.
“So, fighting Mike Tyson is the ideal thing for Jake Paul to do to get back in the conversation. And it’s worked! Everybody has got an opinion on this fight.
“Do you wanna see it? Should it be happening? Can Mike Tyson beat Jake Paul? Does Jake Paul have a chance against Mike Tyson, even though he’s almost 60 years old?”
Tyson will be 58 years old on fight night, but ‘The Outlaw’ is refusing to back against him pulling off a monumental upset to beat his 27-year-old opponent.
“It’s a very odd fight,” Hardy concluded.
“I would never, never, ever count Mike Tyson out, he’s got that fire in his eyes. You can still see it and he still moves very, very well.
“At the same time, Jake Paul is a young, big, powerful athlete and he’s got the chance to fight Mike Tyson. That brings an extra level out anxiety of you, surely.”