Sydney Thomas hardly showed any reaction to Mike Tyson slapping Jake Paul
Viral Paul-Tyson ring girl discusses why fans thought she was part of 'staged' fight
When Mike Tyson slapped Jake Paul, Sydney Thomas had a job to do: not react. That, however, led to additional speculation of a staged fight.
Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) made sure to nix any speculation that the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight was compromised in any capacity, but in case you needed more evidence, one of the ring girls from that night is giving it.
MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital that the fight was "100% real from beginning to end."
The speculation was already present well before the fight, but one moment that prompted fireworks led to even more talk of possible staging.
Mike Tyson slaps Jake Paul during their weigh-in, Nov. 14, 2024, in Irving, Texas. Ring girl Sydney Thomas is shown at left. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Tyson slapped Paul across the face at the weigh-in, saying Paul had stepped on his toe. Several people needed to separate Tyson from Paul, causing a melee on the stage.
Fans pointed to the ring girls behind them, who continued to pose and smile, as evidence that it was all planned. But Sydney Thomas, who has since nearly doubled her social media following, says they had no choice but to not react.
"I was so shocked that it happened. I was not expecting that at all. … But our job as event models is to stand there and smile, we’re not really supposed to react. You’re not supposed to change what you’re doing. You’re supposed to be in the background of all the pictures and not have these big reactions," Thomas told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
So, Thomas had to keep her cool.
Mike Tyson and Jake Paul are separated during their weigh-in, Nov. 14, 2024, in Irving, Texas. Ring girl Sydney Thomas is shown at left. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
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"I’m like, ‘Oh! He just slapped him!’ But I have to hold this smile the whole time. In my head, I’m like, ‘No way. But keep smiling! They’re taking so many pictures, this moment’s going to go so viral. I got to be looking good back here!' That was my thought process.
"A lot of people, too, had drawn a line [and] said, ‘This has to be staged. There’s no way that’s real. The models in the back didn’t even react.’ They were saying it was on us for the reason why it was looking so fake, because we didn’t react. That’s our entire job. We’re paid to stand there and smile. We’re professional at it. We’re not going to have these reactions. It was shocking, but that’s our job."
MVP ripped any notion that the fight was rigged in any form.
"If you were to rig such competition, it is a federal crime. And myself, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, executives from Netflix would all be going to jail. They would be risking their entire company, and we would be risking our entire lives to do that," Bidarian told Fox News Digital last week. "It is preposterous that people even suggest that this was in any way anything other than a professional fight. … That was not the case in any Jake fight, let alone this one."
Sydney Thomas poses in the ring during Paul-Tyson. (Raphaela Milagres)
Thomas recently hit 1 million followers on TikTok and boasts more than 750,000 on other social media.
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