UFC Legend Chael Sonnen Accuses Mike Tyson of Faking Training Video for Jake Paul Fight

Matthew Eisman_Getty Images
Matthew Eisman/Getty Images
Dylan Gwinn

Millions watched and were thoroughly excited by the training video Mike Tyson released this week before his exhibition fight against Jake Paul. But former UFC great Chael Sonnen is not one of them.

Tyson posted a video on Wednesday showing him swatting the mits with his characteristic fury and generally looking terrifying.

While millions saw the video as proof that the 57-year-old was still very much fit to fight and that Jake Paul had made a terrible mistake, UFC middleweight legend Chael Sonnen saw the whole thing as a fake.

“In the future, if you’re ever going to spend five seconds hitting mitts, as a way of making the audience believe you’re doing a training session, make sure you splash water on your face and T-shirt first,” Sonnen wrote on X on Thursday.

On the PBD podcast, Sonnen drew an analogy between MMA legend Vitor Belfort’s boxing match against Evander Holyfield in 2021.

“Vitor Belfort, who has never boxed, put him away so fast. So, this [Holyfield] is an Olympic gold medalist you’re watching,” Sonnen explained. “Vitor, who has never done it, put him away so fast that it ended Vitor’s [boxing] career.

“They would not book him again. They labeled him like an elderly abuser. ‘How dare you? How could you do this?’ Vitor never got another fight… He [Paul] will get teased for taking this [Tyson] fight.’”

Tyson has released three training videos since the post Sonnen reacted to on March 13.

Tyson appears to be sweating and sufficiently fatigued from training in at least two of those videos. Could Tyson’s team have merely thrown water on him in response to Sonnen’s critiques? Yes. However, until Paul and Tyson clash on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, no one knows what’s real.

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