Mike Tyson is still one of the scariest men on the planet. While his days of knocking out opponents in savage fashion and instilling fear may largely be behind him, ‘Iron Mike’ is still, as Joe Rogan put it, a lion. A lion that has aged, but a lion nonetheless. So when Jake Paul, ahead of their July 20 boxing match, tried to act tough in a face-off with the youngest heavyweight champion ever, Tyson and the combat sports world were not impressed.

‘Iron Mike’ remained calm and composed. But, needless to say, Paul’s shenanigans have not gone down well with the fight world, who criticized his behavior, including former UFC star Matt Brown, who called him out in very strong terms.

UFC vet unloads on Jake Paul for ‘acting hard’ against Tyson

After their bout was sanctioned as a professional fight in Texas, ‘The Problem Child’ declared that either he or Tyson had to die in the ring. Paul has been belligerent throughout the build-up and has promised to knock out ‘Iron Mike’ despite his reverence for the former champion outside the ring. And continuing this theme, Paul tried to push the legend’s buttons as they came face to face, and was seen chattering at Tyson and even pointing a finger gun at him.

Contrary to his aggressive persona, when things would probably not have ended well for the former Disney star, Tyson chose to be the bigger man and tried to diffuse the situation by laughing and saying something to Paul that was inaudible to the camera. Former UFC welterweight veteran Matt Brown railed at the celebrity boxer for trying to be the tough guy against Tyson in their second face-off and felt Paul didn’t remember how scary Tyson truly was because he wasn’t even born when Tyson was running through the heavyweight division like an unstoppable hurricane in the 80s and early 90s.

“So cringe. Jake Paul trying to f***ing be hard on Mike Tyson. Jesus Christ. You can’t do that. For one, it’s Mike Tyson. For two you wouldn’t do that 20, 30 years ago when you we born- if you were an adult back then. You wouldn’t even have thought about it… If there’s one guy you don’t want to wake up the f**king savage killer inside, it’s Mike f***ing Tyson!” a heated Brown said in a video on social media.

The 43-year-old found Paul’s conduct during the face-off deplorable and felt that the former Disney star was playing a dangerous game by provoking the ‘savage killer instinct’ of Tyson. And as the fight draws closer, it does seem that ‘Iron Mike’ is, slowly but surely, getting back to his old ways even if in a more muted manner.

Mike Tyson’s chilling warning for Paul

While Mike Tyson had been remarkably calm and placid in his previous press conference with Jake Paul and even admitted his fondness for ‘The Problem Child’, he has promised there will be ‘carnage’ when they get in the ring next month. Even though Tyson admitted in the press conference that he didn’t consider Paul much of a challenge in terms of what he brings to the table, being a true scholar of pugilism, he felt that nothing could be said for certain until they get into the ring.

“Anybody [is a] threat [when] there’s two men in the ring, everybody’s a threat,” he said. Tyson has held off from his famously violent and threatening call-out of his opponents at press conferences as he did in his prime. However, while he was not as bombastic, he did issue a chilling warning that is sure to have made Paul, at the very least, extremely uncomfortable.

“I gave him his warning: Fight like your life depends on it because it does. [But] I’m not concerned about anything. If I was concerned, I wouldn’t be here talking to you,” he told the reporters. What are your thoughts about the whole affair? Do you think will win the bout? Let us know in the comments below.