Jake Paul fights Mike Perry to highlight risk of Mike Tyson

Jake Paul took on Mike Perry a few months before his scheduled fight with Mike Tyson, but he said early on that this may have proven to be a bad decision.

Of course, “provable” is the big word here, and Paul is certainly intent on winning when he fights Perry on Saturday in Tampa, Fla. (DAZN pay-per-view), but he was also forced to acknowledge that the Tyson bout, expected to be a blockbuster live on Netflix on Nov. 15, may not happen if something goes wrong.

“Tyson is still scheduled for November 15th, in Dallas, Texas. I'm going to get through this. (I'm) focused on this,” Paul said on “The Pat McAfee Show” about the double booking. “Mike Perry's not kidding me. If I lose this, there's no Mike Tyson fight, so this is a big risk. So there's a lot riding on this fight and it's a little bit of pressure to deal with that. But I usually perform best in high pressure situations.”

Boxing legend Tyson was forced to postpone his scheduled bout with Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, due to a recurrence of an ulcer.

So Paul, who had knocked out Andre August in December and Ryan Borland in March in consecutive first-round knockouts, organized a fight with Perry, a former UFC slugger who had recently risen to stardom with BKFC. Perry had been knocked out once in a professional boxing bout but only once in 22 professional MMA bouts.

“Why Mike Perry? Why now? Why not wait? What about Mike Tyson? Yes, I'm fighting Mike Tyson on November 15th,” Paul said on his YouTube channel when announcing the bout. “But Mike Tyson is one of the fiercest men on the planet, much more experienced than I am, and a killer. So why not get some experience by fighting another notorious killer, Mike Perry? A legend in hand-to-hand fighting, a man you can't knock out, a brutal, violent brawler.”

“This guy is nuts. He's undefeated in bare-knock combat, which is probably the craziest sport in the world. Needless to say, this fight has been in the works for years. … I think this fight will make for some great press conference moments and really entertaining, but it also comes with some big risks. If I lose to Mike Perry, it could literally cost me the biggest moment of my career, the biggest payday of my career. But for some reason, I just love putting myself in those positions.”