Nearly 80,000 people were hoping boxing legend Mike Tyson would turn back the clock Friday night against Jake Paul – and the excitement at AT&T Stadium was through the roof early on.
But by the fourth round, as Tyson began to look like a 58-year-old who hadn’t had a professional fight in 19 years, the crowd began to die out. Several moments later, boo-birds were loud, and the crowd then grew restless.
The reaction on social media was similar, with many losing interest rather quickly in the biggest boxing spectacle in modern history. Perhaps tons of connection issues on Netflix, where the fight was shown live, and minutes of buffering added to the let-down as well.
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Mike Tyson (in black shorts) and Jake Paul (in silver shorts) exchange punches during their heavyweight world titles of the Premiere Boxing Championship on Friday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Nov. 15. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Sure, almost no one in the crowd wanted to see Jake Paul win, but the crowd was booing the action as a whole – not just Paul. In the end, it was a victory by unanimous decision for Paul.
Tyson clearly ran out of gas early, which could have prompted Paul, 31 years Tyson’s junior, to pounce, but Paul later admitted he had let off the pedal.
“Definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt,” he said in his post-fight presser. Tyson did not speak with the media.
“I tried to give the best fight I possibly could, but when someone’s just surviving in the ring, it’s hard to make it exciting. I couldn’t really get him to engage me or slip shots and do something super cool or whatever,” he added.
Jake Paul and Mike Tyson embrace after their heavyweight boxing match on Nov. 15 in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
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Well, that led to what has been widely regarded as a boring fight. In fact, the most exciting part of all of this may just have been Tyson’s slap at Thursday’s weigh-in.
But Paul, in his own words, doesn’t care about the negativity.
“I don’t care what people have to say. They’re always going to have something to say. It is what it is.”
Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian added, “The only way people would have been happy is if Jake lost. People would’ve been like ‘oh, what a great fight! Mike’s a legend!’ [If] he knocked out Mike Tyson, it would have been rigged. It went eight rounds, ‘Mike wasn’t trying. The fight wasn’t good enough.’ It was an unbelievable display between a 58-year-old legend and 27-year-old relatively young boxer.
“And [Paul] outboxed Mike Tyson like he said he was gonna do.”
US YouTuber/boxer Jake Paul celebrates winning the heavyweight boxing bout against retired pro-boxer Mike Tyson (R) at The Pavilion at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 15. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
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Paul improved to 11-1 in his young career. The loss was Tyson’s seventh, opposite 50 prior victories.
Tyson has now lost his last three sanctioned fights, and four of his last five, with his last victory coming on Feb. 22, 2003.
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