Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) ensured Eliminate any guesswork. That the Jack Paul-Mike Tyson fight was compromised in any capacity, but if you needed more proof, one of tonight’s ring girls is giving it.
MVP Co-founder Nikisa Bedarian said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital that the fight was “100% real from start to finish.”
Speculation was already there well before the fight, but a moment that hinted at fireworks spoke even more about potential staging.
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Tyson slaps Paul. Across the face at weigh-in, saying Paul stepped on his toe. Several people needed to separate Tyson from Paul, causing a ruckus on stage.
Fans pointed to the ring girls behind them, who continued to pose and smile, as proof that it was all planned. But Sydney Thomas, who has since almost doubled her following on social media, says she had no choice but to react.
“I was shocked that it happened. I wasn’t expecting it at all. … But our job as event models is to stand there and smile, we don’t really have to react. You have to. All pictures should be in the background and not big reactions,” Thomas told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
So, Thomas had to keep it cool.
Mike Tyson and Jack Paul are separated during their weigh-in on November 14, 2024 in Irving, Texas. Ringgirl Sydney Thomas is shown at left. (Christian Patterson/Getty Images)
Paul Tyson Ring Girl Sydney Thomas Reflects on New Fame, Career Goals
“I’m like, ‘Oh! He just slapped her!’ But I have to keep that smile in my head, ‘No way, but they’re taking lots of pictures, it looks great back here!’ That was my thought process.
“A lot of people also drew a line. [and] He said, ‘This is to stage. There is no way that is real. The later models also showed no reaction.’ They were saying that it was on us that it looked so fake, because we didn’t react. This is all our work. We get paid to stand there and smile. We are professionals in this. We will not react. It was shocking, but that’s our job.”
MVP dispelled any notion that the fight was rigged in any way.
“If you rig a contest like that, it’s a federal crime. And me, Jack Paul, Mike Tyson, the Netflix executives all go to jail. They’re putting their entire company at risk, and we would be risking their entire lives to do that,” Biedrin told Fox News Digital last week. “It’s ludicrous that people would even suggest that this was anything other than a professional fight in any way. … It wasn’t like that in any Jack fight, let alone this one.”
Sidney Thomas poses in the ring during Paul Tyson. (Rafaela Malagres)
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Thomas recently hit 1 million followers on TikTok and claims more than 750,000 on other social media.
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