Watch: Mike Tyson slaps Jake Paul and swears at child ahead of Netflix showdown

Mike Tyson signed off from the build-up to Friday’s fight against Jake Paul in petulant style, slapping his opponent in the face at the weigh-in and then making a speedy and somewhat undignified retreat.

Perhaps the whole episode was choreographed for clicks. Or perhaps it was just how Tyson felt at the time. Either way, this did not seem like the best way to burnish the legend of “Iron Mike, the baddest man on the planet.”

As soon as he made contact, Tyson backed off and took shelter amid the many black-clad men who were patrolling the stage. Master of ceremonies Ariel Helwani tried to ask him a follow-up question, but Tyson said “talk is over” and left the stage so quickly that there might as well have been a puff of smoke.

Later, Tyson’s entourage told ESPN that their man was only reacting to Paul purposely stepping on his foot. In the same briefing, they also suggested that he had become impatient with Paul’s trash-talking ahead of Friday’s fight.

Certainly Tyson has appeared grumpier with each successive build-up appearance this week, answering questions with reasonably good grace at Tuesday’s open training session but retreating into himself thereafter.

One social media video showed him being interviewed by a child – an increasingly common trope in modern sport – and responding to her cheery question about his legacy with a testy “Who the f--- cares about me when I’m gone?”

Returning to the weigh-in, Paul initially treated the slap as a big joke, sitting down on the stage in Lotus position with his fingers pressed together like a Yogi. Then he remembered that he was supposed to be playing up the drama, so he stood up and started yelling into the microphone.

“I didn’t even feel it. He’s angry. He’s an angry little elf,” said Paul, growing increasingly red-faced. “Mike Tyson, I thought that was a cute slap, buddy, but tomorrow you’re getting knocked the f--- out. It’s personal now! He hits like a b----. He must die!”

Tyson looked mean, moody and magnificent

The one positive about Tyson’s weigh-in appearance was exactly that: his appearance. Wearing only the tiniest pair of Versace pants, and emerging to some thunderous gangster-rap, he looked in terrific shape.

In fact, at 228lbs Tyson appeared more lean and muscular than Paul (227lbs), who is 31 years his junior. Mind you, Paul normally lists himself as a cruiserweight and has spent much of the past month eating furiously in search of extra ballast.

As Paul told his Olympic speed-skater girlfriend Jutta Leerdam during the Netflix build-up shows: “My muscles are powered by cinnamon rolls.” His dietary policies must have worked, as he logged the heaviest weight of his boxing career (if one can really describe 11 bouts against washed-up MMA fighters and former NBA stars as an actual boxing career).

As for Tyson, he cut a sharper-looking figure than we might remember from some of his later fights, such as the takedown of British champion Julius Francis in 2000. He claimed in his autobiography that Francis had mysteriously gained weight before their meeting while training at  “some kind of army camp”. But Tyson himself appeared to be carrying a spare tyre around his midriff that night.

Here, he managed to look mean, moody and magnificent – only to undercut the impression with that unedifying slap.

The fight itself is expected to draw between 60,000 and 75,000 fans to the Dallas Cowboys’ regular base of AT&T Stadium in Arlington. After six undercard bouts, including Katie Taylor’s much-anticipated rematch against Amanda Serrano, it will probably begin some time around 4am GMT on Saturday morning.