During a final press conference to hype the fight between Jake Paul and Mike Perry Saturday night, a yellow strip with black lettering appeared on the upper lefthand corner of the screen showing the event.
It read: "We apologize for the bad language.''
There was lots of it, with more than a dozen F-bombs dropped during an event broadcast on YouTube − or, as the boxers threatened to have it renamed, the Eff-You-Tube.
The mostly playful encounters between Paul (9-1, 6 KO's) and Perry, the bareknuckle brawler who is 0-1 in boxing, to promote the cruiserweight fight scheduled for eight rounds devolved into something far less civil Thursday. At times it was downright vulgar. But it did include some unintended humor.
Perry spewed profanity as if he were getting paid by the word, but he objected when Ariel Helwani, who moderated the press conference, referred to Perry as "one of the toughest SOBs on the planet.''
Said Perry, "It's SOG.''
That would be Son of a Gun. Which Perry indicated his mother would prefer.
"Sorry, my apologies to her,'' Hewani said.
Mrs. Perry did not attend the press conference, according to Perry, who said his mother will attend the fight to be broadcast by DAZN. In fact, DAZN will also broadcast the press conference and apparently was responsible for issuing the apology that appeared on the upper lefthand corner of the screen.
Not surprisingly, Paul helped rile up Perry, who has elevated his profile while going 5-0 in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC).
"I'm going to embarrass their whole entire league,'' Paul said. "This guy (Perry) has no skill. Those are just brawlers, idiot street fighter dudes who have no idea what the sweet science is.''
Perry then called Paul a "disrespectful punk.''
"Those men and women fight for their families over there,'' Perry said, referring to the BKFC fighters. "They put it all on the line and they get in that ring and they put on shows for the fans.''
Paul's biweekly podcast came out Thursday, and Helwani noted that Paul disclosed he drank alcohol at Michael Rubin's White Party 16 days before his scheduled fight against Perry.
"Does that make you feel like he's not taking this fight seriously?'' Helwani asked Perry.
Not in the least.
Perry said he's drank and smoked before a fight and then grew even more explicit about his pre-fight activities.
"I'm a crazy (expletive),'' he said, "and I'm here to fight."