Mike Tyson and Jake Paul are blocking out the haters as the duo mocked their critics ahead of their July 20 professional fight at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Tyson will be 58 by the time he makes his ring walk and he’ll be fighting YouTube star-turned-boxer Paul, who’s three decades his junior.

Since the announcement of the fight, Tyson and Paul have been heavily criticized by fans as well as figures of boxing’s past and present. Concerns were raised over Tyson’s health, in particular, with the former heavyweight King using a support cane once upon a time.

However, sparring videos have put some of those grumbles to bed, as Tyson showed off his devastating punching power. In a Netflix promotion video, Tyson and Paul browsed through some negative comments, and both gave explicit responses. “I hope Mike bites Jake’s ear off,” one fan quipped, which brought a smile to Tyson’s face. “This fight going to be like watching a pitbull tear apart a chihuahua Jake got no idea what he got into,” another said.

Despite the early buzz, enthusiasm falling has hit ticket prices for the summer fight hard. The cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster is going for $105. Tickets are also still widely available across all parts of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium for the event.

Paul still expects the stadium to be packed. “It’s crazy to think about but as many people as can fit in the stadium, I think it’s 90,000 or 93,000,” he told TMZ Sports. “I think it’s going to be packed to the brim and the global viewership could be in the hundreds of millions. It’s wild and it doesn’t make any sense but the fact Netflix are part of this is the perfect piece of the puzzle.

“It makes it the perfect trifecta of Netflix’s audience, my audience and Mike Tyson’s audience. And to the kids at home, [it says] don’t listen to the critics. Do you and don’t be afraid to knock down the doors of opportunity because you truly never know where it’s going to lead you.”

Paul added: “Absolutely not. If he has the same opportunity you know damn well he’s going to finish me in embarrassing fashion so I have to reciprocate that same energy. Mike Tyson is a killer, he’s ruthless and he’s the most vicious champion ever so I have to channel that Mike Tyson energy to finish him and the legend must fall.”

Tyson has fought just once since 2005, taking on Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition fight in Nov. 2020. Iron Mike’s last professional fight came against Kevin McBride, where he quit on his stool after five rounds.