Mike Tyson concedes the role of villain to young foe in 58-year-old's fight with Jake Paul

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Friendship is at the heart of how a fight came together between 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and much younger YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

Friction helped build the hype for a bout that is testing the formula for how boxing is delivered to the masses, a first-ever combat sports offering from the streaming platform Netflix rather than pay-per-view or traditional cable.

“I think they’re beloved fans of Mike Tyson,” Paul said, trying to explain the boisterous boos that have greeted him when the two have appeared together in recent months to hype the event.

“And I’m the new kid on the block, the disrupter, loud mouth, polarizing figure,” Paul said. “And I’ve built my career as the heel. Naturally people want to root against me, and that’s great for the sport of boxing.”

Tyson's first sanctioned professional fight in almost 20 years is set for Friday night at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. A crowd of at least 60,000 is expected while Netflix offers the bout at no additional cost to more than 280 million subscribers globally.

The 27-year-old Paul is relatively new to the sport, the one-time social media influencer bringing a 10-1 record with seven knockouts mostly against mixed martial artists and journeymen boxers.

Tyson was 50-6 with 44 knockouts when he retired after losing to Kevin McBride in 2005, saying he didn't have anything left to give the sport. He last fought in an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. with no fans during the pandemic in 2020.

A fight originally scheduled for July 20 was postponed when Tyson had to be treated for a stomach ulcer after falling ill on a flight.

Tyson said in a documentary chronicling the preparations for the fight that he lost 26 pounds in the process of recovering.

Promoter Nakisa Bidarian, who co-founded Most Valuable Promotions with Paul, said Tyson was cleared medically weeks ago. Bidarian sidestepped a question of how concerned he was for Tyson's health once he steps in the ring.

"I’m nervous for both men,” Bidarian said. “The reality is Jake’s never been hit by someone like Mike Tyson flush on the chin. And Mike hasn’t fought someone like Jake for a very long time. That’s what makes this interesting.”

Paul said he had a vision for the fight about two years ago and shared it with Tyson because he thought the Hall of Famer would understand — and be interested. It took about that long for the bout to come together.

Tyson appeared agitated at both hype events with fans in the Dallas area, first in the weeks before the originally scheduled fight and again at a news conference two nights before the bout.

He was more reflective in a smaller setting with reporters, suggesting he wasn't the same foul-mouthed, scowling fighter from his prime.

“I’ve been through so many ups and downs since my last fight with Kevin McBride,” Tyson said. “I’ve been in rehab. I’ve been in prison, been locked up. Never in a million years did I believe I’d be doing this.”

According to reports, Paul will get $40 million for the fight, a number he mentioned at another news conference in New York in August.

Tyson, who had two stints in prison over convictions in the 1990s for rape and assault and declared bankruptcy 21 years ago, will get $20 million. Tyson has said he isn't doing the fight for money.

"That old Mike Tyson ... he doesn’t have no more purpose in my life. He just doesn't exist,” Tyson said. “I’m having a good time in my life. I don’t have much time left, so I’m having the best time of my life.”

Several states wouldn’t sanction the bout. Texas agreed to a fight that was eight rounds instead of 10 or 12, with two-minute rounds instead of three, and heavier gloves designed to lessen the power of punches.

Paul has faced persistent questions about why he would fight someone so much older, regardless of Tyson's pedigree. His answers have been consistent.

“I say talk to Mike and tell Mike that,” Paul said. “He’s the one that wanted it to be a pro fight and me, as a young person in this sport, is not going to (pass) up the opportunity to fight the GOAT of boxing. It’s like Ja Morant turning down a 1-v-1 against LeBron. It’s not going to happen.”

There is a high-profile championship fight on the card — the co-main event of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano.

Paul said he wanted to give the women a spotlight after their slugfest at sold-out Madison Square Garden in 2022. It was the first time women headlined a boxing event at the famous venue.

Taylor won a split decision that many questioned. Bidarian and Paul say the rematch for the undisputed super lightweight title will be the most lucrative women's sporting event in history.

“A lot of people said the real main event is Taylor-Serrano,” Bidarian said. “I'm OK if you feel that way. Jake has said he's more excited about that fight than his own fight. But we wanted to ensure the most eyeballs got to see that fight. To be quite honest with ourselves, Paul-Tyson draws a bigger audience."

Mike Tyson, bottom, listens as Katie Taylor speaks during a news conference ahead of her undisputed super lightweight world title bout against Amanda Serrano, the co-main event in the Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight night, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Amanda Serrano gestures during a news conference ahead of her undisputed super lightweight world title bout against Katie Taylor, the co-main event in the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight night, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Jake Paul reacts during a news conference ahead of his fight against Mike Tyson, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Mike Tyson speaks during a news conference ahead of his fight against Jake Paul, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Mike Tyson, front left, and Jake Paul, front right, face off during a news conference ahead of their fight, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

The purchase turns over Jones’ company, which for decades has peddled in conspiracy and misinformation, to a humor website that plans to relaunch the Infowars platform in January as a parody. Within hours of the sale’s announcement Thursday, Infowars’ website was down and Jones was broadcasting from what he said was a new studio location.

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.

The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive for an undisclosed sales price.

The satirical outlet — which carries the banner of “America’s Finest News Source” on its masthead — was founded in the 1980s and for decades has skewered politics and pop culture, including making Jones a frequent target of mocking articles. Mass shootings in the U.S., such as the Sandy Hook attack, are often followed by The Onion publishing slightly updated versions of one of its most well-known recurring pieces of satire: "'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

“No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds,” The Onion said in its satirical post on the sale. “And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”

On his live broadcast, Jones was angry and defiant, vowing to challenge the sale and auction process in court. He later announced his show was being shut down. Jones, who had told listeners for days that he had a new studio already set up nearby, then resumed his broadcast on a different social media account.

“This is a total attack on free speech, the deep state is completely out of control,” Jones told his listeners, referencing conspiracy theories. “This the tyranny of the New World Order, desperate to silence the American people."

He claimed the takeover by The Onion was premature because the bankruptcy judge had not yet signed off on the winning bid.

A Jones-affiliated company named by the bankruptcy trustee as the backup bid requested an immediate status conference, citing “the apparent defects in the sale process, including changing the procedures, lack of transparency, and inaccurate disclosures to interested bidders." A hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Houston.

The Onion, based in Chicago, consulted on the bidding with some of the Sandy Hook families that sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, lawyers for the families said.

“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.

Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, told The Associated Press in a video interview that it will relaunch the Infowars website in January with satire aimed at conspiracy theorists and right-wing personalities, as well as educational information about gun violence prevention from the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Collins would not disclose the sale price.

“We thought it would be a very funny joke if we bought this thing, probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told,” Collins said. “The (Sandy Hook) families decided they would effectively join our bid, back our bid, to try to get us over the finish line. Because by the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones, who could either continue this website unabated, basically unpunished, for what he’s done to these families over the years, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing.”

Sandy Hook families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.

The Onion bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. Recent headlines have included, “Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings,” “Oklahoma Law Requires Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Every Womb” and “Man Forgetting Difference Between Meteoroid, Meteorite Struggles To Describe What Just Killed His Dog.”

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones expressed interest in buying Infowars, and Jones had told listeners the outcome would determine whether he stayed on the Infowars platform.

The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, which is affiliated with one of Jones’ product-selling sites, as the backup bid should the sale to The Onion fall through.

Associated Press writer Ken Miller contributed from Oklahoma City.

Global Tetrahedron, LLC, owner of The Onion, is displayed on the entrance screen to the office building that is headquarters to the satirical publication, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Chicago. The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones'Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

This undated photo provided by ThreeSixty Asset Advisors shows the Infowars set. (ThreeSixty Asset Advisors via AP)

A copy of the satirical outlet The Onion is seen Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Jill Bleed)

FILE - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)