It was one of the most highly-anticipated boxing matches of the year, yet the bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul proved to be a huge disappointment – with everyone coming to the same conclusion.
Tyson looked to be every bit a 58-year-old as he lost to Paul in a unanimous decision in front of 70,000 people at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
He was sluggish and stiff, stumbling around the ring while failing to make an impact outside of the first 30 seconds – especially as his right knee was in a brace.
Many wondered why it was allowed for a man of Tyson’s age and condition to be allowed to take part in such an event against a far younger and fitter 27-year-old.
While others tore into Gen Z YouTuber Paul for taking the cash before knocking around his much older rival with ease, with some branding it ‘elder abuse’.
Among the celebrities and fans worldwide who slammed the bout, MMA star Conor McGregor offered a bleak assessment of the occasion in a now deleted tweet.
‘A 16-minute spar in sparring gloves. F**k off,’ the Irishman said.
WBA light middleweight champion Terence Crawford added, ‘I love Mike Tyson, but they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash, to train that long and only throw 97 punches the whole fight is crazy. I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt out there.’
After an embarrassing eight-round bout, Jake Paul defeated former champion Mike Tyson
English boxer Tony Bellew gave Paul some credit while recognizing Tyson’s flaws: ‘I don’t like this stupid idiot kid but I will say this.. He stopped beating on Mike there and showed him some respect and dignity by letting him survive!
Bellew continued, ‘He didn’t go for the KO there he stepped off him and let him be.. Mike we all adore you king your a super hero to all of us from the proper fight business!’
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NBA icon Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson posted, ‘Just sad smh. I cut it off because I couldn’t watch anymore. It’s sad to see Mike Tyson like this because I went to every Tyson fight. This fight tonight was not great for boxing.’
American journalist Shea Serrano joked about how the fight looked compared to the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight immediately preceding it, saying, ‘going from the taylor-serrano fight to the paul-tyson fight is like if you watched the super bowl and then immediately after the super bowl you watched two people play paper football on a table in denny’s at 3am.’
Former United States women’s soccer player Sydney Leroux simply tweeted, ‘Pathetic on all accounts.’
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy tweeted, ‘Credit to Jake Paul + Mike Tyson for pulling off one of the great cons of century. I shoulda put 10 million on Jake. Not cause he’s good but cause he fought a senior citizen. I would say everybody involved should be ashamed but I’d take the money it too if I could.’
New York sports talk radio legend Mike Francesa tweeted, ‘Anybody who had anything to do with that Tyson/Paul debacle owes the public an apology. What garbage.’
Many personalities from the world of sports were quick to slam the fight and the fighters
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Before the fight began, podcaster and UFC ringside personality Joe Rogan tweeted, ‘I’m getting ready to watch this Tyson vs Jake Paul fight like I’m watching someone cast a spell that I hope actually works. And I don’t really believe in magic. But I want to believe.’
After the fight ended, Rogan simply replied to himself with the words: ‘Magic isn’t real.’
After the bout, WBA lightweight belt holder Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis posted a tribute to Tyson on his Instagram story, saying, ‘You will forever be a legend..rather [sic] you like ir or not and it will never be another one! And I understand you so well..all this s**t don’t mean nothing.’
He also went on to trash Paul saying, ‘To the bozo that shared the ring w Mike.. you a whole bozo for this and you didn’t get the job done [poop emoji] head..’
YouTuber, rapper, and boxer KSI also posted to his Instagram story, saying, ‘What a sad watch. Whole thing was sad. Mike Tyson is twice the age of Jake Paul ffs. It was never EVER gonna be close. I can’t believe that this elderly abuse was even sanctioned. Just a disgusting.’
For all the pomp and excitement that the promotion to this match promised, the payoff failed in a truly spectacular way.
Tyson finished the fight having thrown only 97 punches compared to Paul’s 278, according to CompuBox. What’s worse is that ‘Iron Mike’ only landed 18 of those while absorbing 78 blows from the man 31 years his junior.
In his hey day, Tyson’s bread-and-butter was body shots. In this bout, he only landed four blows to the body while eating 20 from Paul.
Other boxers and combat sports veterans reacted negatively to the events of the evening
Jake Paul and Mike Tyson embrace at the end of their highly anticipated bout
Even still, the 58-year-old appeared to indicate in the ring that he’d want to fight Jake’s brother, former boxer and current WWE superstar Logan Paul. The older Paul brother replied, ‘I’d kill you Mike.’
While it served as an embarrassment to the sport of boxing, it proved to be a massive pay day for Netflix and Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions – who reported a gate of $17.8 million (£14.1million).
But it’s not like Netflix’s presentation was smooth sailing. Tens of thousands of customers reported issues with sluggish streams and buffering throughout the fight and even in the undercard bouts.
Even the broadcast team itself had issues – with boxer Evander Holyfield unable to hear questions from presenter Kate Scott. Additionally, when interviewing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, his microphone cut out while he was speaking.