Boxing legend Mike Tyson beaten by YouTuber Jake Paul in heavyweight return
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ARLINGTON – Jake Paul beat boxing legend Mike Tyson by unanimous decision to win an intergenerational heavyweight battle in Texas on Nov 15 that failed to live up to its enormous hype.
The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prizefighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson was streamed live on Netflix and played out in front of a sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Those fans were left largely disappointed as Tyson showed his age and was never able to generate any offence against his younger opponent, landing just 18 punches to Paul’s 78 in the eight-round bout.
Paul won by big margins on all three cards – 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73. Yet the younger fighter was unable to land the knockout blow he had promised to deliver during the Nov 14 ill-tempered weigh-in, where Tyson slapped him across the face.
“First and foremost, Mike Tyson – it’s an honour to be able to fight him. It was as tough and hard as I thought it would be,” said Paul.
Tyson, who wore a knee brace, never mounted much of a challenge after being wobbled by some left hands in the third round, but did enough defensively to avoid taking any serious damage.
He admitted after the contest to fighting through a leg injury.
“Yeah, but I can’t use that as an excuse. If I did, I wouldn’t be in here,” Tyson said.
“I knew he was a good fighter. He was prepared, I came to fight. I didn’t prove nothing to anybody, only to myself. I’m not one of those guys that live to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”
Tyson, one of the most fearsome heavyweight champions of all time during his heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was in his first professional fight in nearly 20 years. He was non-committal when asked if he would return to the ring again.
“I don’t know. It depends on the situation,” he said.
Paul (11-1) said he can now fight anyone he wants, possibly even Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, after being the main attraction in the mega event that brought out a star-studded crowd and 72,300 fight fans to the home of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys.
He said: “This is the biggest event, over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site, the biggest US boxing gate, US$20 million (S$26.9 million), in US history, and everyone is next on the list.”
More than 100,000 users reported network issues on the Downdetector website throughout the livestreaming, commenting on slow buffering and network issues.
In the co-main event earlier in the evening, Ireland’s Katie Taylor retained her super lightweight title by beating Puerto Rico’s Amanda Serrano in a controversial unanimous decision after a violent affair.
Serrano came forward throughout the fight but their heads crashed together hard in the early stages, resulting in a deep cut over Serrano’s right eye. The referee later took a point off Taylor for headbutts.
In the end, all three judges scored the bout 95-94 in favour of Taylor, who denied accusations from Serrano’s corner that she was fighting dirty.
Taylor won the pair’s previous meeting at New York’s Madison Square Garden in April 2022 and said there would be a third meeting. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP
