As Jake Paul removed his gloves before the final bell and bowed to 58-year-old Mike Tyson, the crowd’s jeers intensified, expressing their disappointment at the lack of action.
This tribute to a boxing legend did little to appease the fans who packed the home of the Dallas Cowboys on Friday night.
Paul secured a unanimous eight-round decision victory over Tyson, a fight where the much-anticipated excitement failed to materialize. The bout pitted the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer against the former heavyweight champion in Tyson’s first sanctioned professional fight in nearly two decades.
The pre-fight animosity had vanished, replaced by the boos of a frustrated audience who questioned the fight’s legitimacy before it even began.
The judges’ scorecards showed a decisive victory for Paul, with one judge scoring it 80-72 and the other two 79-73.
“Let’s give it up for Mike,” Paul said in the ring, met with little response from a crowd that began leaving before the decision was announced. “He’s the greatest to ever do it. I look up to him. I’m inspired by him.”
Tyson launched a brief flurry of punches immediately after the opening bell but largely remained inactive for the remainder of the fight.
Even with fewer than the usual 10 or 12 rounds, and two-minute rounds instead of three, along with heavier gloves intended to reduce the impact of punches, the fight lacked excitement.
Following Tyson’s initial burst, Paul became more aggressive, but his punches lacked precision, with numerous wild swings and misses.
“I was trying to hurt him a little bit,” said Paul, improving his record to 11-1. “I was scared he was going to hurt me. I was trying to hurt him. I did my best. I did my best.”
Tyson mostly adopted a defensive stance, waiting for Paul to approach, except for a few exceptions. This contrasted sharply with the intense battle between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, where Taylor retained her undisputed super lightweight title via another contested decision.
Paul stated that he reduced his intensity from around the third round, believing Tyson was fatigued and vulnerable.
“I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt somebody that didn’t need to be hurt,” Paul said.
This was Tyson’s first sanctioned fight since 2005, following his more entertaining 2020 exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr. Paul began his boxing career a little over four years ago.
“I didn’t prove nothing to anybody, only to myself,” Tyson said when asked about completing the fight. “I’m not one of those guys that looks to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”
The fight, initially scheduled for July 20, was postponed after Tyson was treated for a stomach ulcer following an illness on a flight. His record now stands at 50-7 with 44 knockouts.
Tyson slapped Paul at the weigh-in the night before the fight, and they exchanged insults during various pre- and post-postponement hype events.
By the end of the underwhelming fight, the animosity had completely dissipated.
“I have so much respect for him,” Paul said. “That violence, war thing between us, like after he slapped me, I wanted to be aggressive and take him down and knock him out and all that stuff. That kind of went away as the rounds went on.”
The fight set a Texas record for combat sports, generating a gate of nearly $18 million, according to organizers. Netflix experienced technical difficulties with its live stream of the event, which marked its first live combat sports broadcast. Netflix boasts over 280 million global subscribers.
“This is the biggest event,” Paul said. “Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”
Among the celebrities in attendance were basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and former NFL star Rob Gronkowski, alongside Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, two of Tyson’s prominent rivals from his prime, greeted him in his locker room before the fight.
Tyson, who famously bit Holyfield’s ear in a 1997 match, appeared to have one of his gloves in his mouth several times during the Paul fight. When asked about a potential issue with his mouthpiece, he responded:
“I have a habit of biting my gloves,” Tyson said. “I have a biting fixation.”
“I’ve heard about that,” the interviewer replied.
In an undercard bout, Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos fought to a draw in their WBC welterweight title fight. Barrios controlled the early rounds before Ramos dominated the middle rounds. Each fighter had a knockdown during the 12-round fight.
This was Barrios’ first fight since being named the WBC welterweight champion after Terence Crawford began his move up from the 147-pound class.
Barrios, 29-2-1, won the interim WBC title with a unanimous decision over Yordenis Ugás last year. Ramos, 33, holds a record of 28-6-3.
“`
