Rocky star and Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone has praised Mike Tyson for his Oscar-worthy performance against YouTube star-turned-boxer Jake Paul and sparing his rival.

Tyson, 58, was convincingly beaten by Paul inside the AT&T Stadium last Friday in a fairly uncompetitive affair. Throughout the fight, the former Heavyweight King showed hesitancy when hunting Paul down and seemed to pull some punches that could’ve changed the course of the fight.

Stallone, who played the iconic “Rocky”, has told Paul to count his lucky stars after Tyson put in an Oscar-winning performance. “Just to set my personal record straight. Business is business,” Stallone said on Instagram.

“SOMETIMES you have to do hard things and sacrifice for the sake of helping your FAMILY…. I have known this unbelievable athlete since he’s 19 years old and what we saw was him giving one of the great Oscar winning performances of all time!!!!

“Please, Jake, be grateful, HE SPARED YOUR LIFE! Trust me ….. Keep punching Mike, there will never be a MAN like you, a GLADIATOR like you, and a SOUL like you! Keep punching champion of champions! I remember once I bumped into him and thought I was hit by runaway BULLDOZER!!!”

However, Tyson’s hesitancy against Paul, which has now recorded a professional loss on his record, could’ve largely been down to his age and a health episode he suffered earlier this year that caused July’s original fight to be rescheduled to Nov. Tyson revealed on social media that he nearly lost his life.

“This is one of those situations when you lost but still won,” Tyson revealed on X. “I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in ring one last time.

Actor Sylvester Stallone has hit out at Jake Paul over his fight with boxing legend Mike Tyson

Actor Sylvester Stallone has hit out at Jake Paul over his fight with boxing legend Mike Tyson ( 

Image:

Getty)

“I almost died in June. Had 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won. To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you.”

Tyson and Paul broke several records despite the underwhelming main event. BetMGM saw record money placed on the fight, with a lot of bettors praying Tyson could roll back the years and score a knockout victory over Paul, who’s 30 years his junior.

Netflix, which hosted the live fight on its platform, also saw 60 million viewers. And the gate revenue was the biggest in combat sports history outside of Las Vegas.