No, Mike Tyson didn’t pose with Palestinian flag before Jake Paul fight

Viral social media posts claim former two-time heavyweight champion Mike Tyson draped the Palestinian flag around his body ahead of his highly publicized Nov. 15 boxing match with YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul. 

“Mike Tyson poses with the Palestinian flag before his historic fight,” a Nov. 15 Facebook post said. The post included an image of Tyson with the four-color flag resting on his neck and shoulders. A different Facebook post claimed Tyson wore the flag a day before his fight with Paul.

We saw similar posts on X.

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

These claims are wrong. Tyson, 58, didn’t display the Palestinian flag during his prematch appearance or during the fight which he lost to Paul, 27. Some said Tyson wore the flag a day before his match but his public appearance on that day does not support this.

We reviewed the livestream of the Nov. 14 prematch weigh-in and it shows Tyson wore a personally branded jacket and Versace bottoms. The photo in the claim shows Tyson in a boxing ring, but the weigh-in was at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas, not in a boxing ring.

On fight night, Tyson wore a short-sleeved black poncho and black shorts. We found no photos showing Tyson and the Palestinian flag from news agencies that covered this match. The lack of photos from trusted news sources for a highly publicized event signal this image is not authentic.

We rate the claim that Tyson posed with the Palestinian flag False.

By

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu

Staff writer

November 19, 2024

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• Viral photos claim to show boxer Mike Tyson with a Palestinian flag around his neck and shoulders before his Nov. 15 match with YouTube star Jake Paul.

• But video footage of Tyson’s prematch appearances does not show him with the flag.

Statement

Mike Tyson posed with the Palestinian flag before his Nov. 15 fight against Jake Paul.

Context

a post

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Facebook posts

Statement Date

November 15, 2024