The most hyped fight of the year turned out to be a massive dud. On Saturday night, 27-year-old Jake Paul defeated 58-year-old boxing legend Mike Tyson via unanimous decision at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The fight ended up going through the scheduled eight rounds with Tyson seemingly taking the first two rounds of the contest. However, unsurprisingly Paul who is more than half Tyson’s age used an in-fighters technique to wear down the former heavyweight champion landing 78-18 in total punches.
Paul, who reportedly made $40M off the fight, said he definitely” took his foot off the gas “a bit” when he noticed Tyson starting to get tired in the middle rounds.
“I wanted to give the fans a show,” Paul said at the post-fight press conference. “But I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
“There was a point where I was just like, ‘OK, he’s not really engaging back.’ I could just tell his age was showing a little bit.”
Fans in attendance ended up booing in the immediate aftermath of the lackluster bout.
“I tried to give the best fight I possibly could,” Paul said who moved to 11-1. “But when someone’s just surviving in the ring, basically, it’s hard to make it exciting. I couldn’t really get (Tyson) to engage me or slip shots or do something super cool or whatever. But I don’t care about what people have to say.”
Paul praised Tyson at the end of the match, bowing to him in the final seconds of the eighth round, and said that the former champion is “the greatest to ever do it.”
Boxing continues to have problems drawing legitimate interest
It’s crazy to think how much boxing has fallen off over the past 30 years considering a fight between a 58-year-old and a 27-year-old was the biggest draw this year. And it’s not been just this year, these gimmick matches often headlined by Jake Paul have for the most part taken over the sport by overhyping bouts while failing to deliver in the end. Additionally, if Jake Paul is going to be taken seriously as a competitor and one of the best the sport has to offer, he’s going to have to start getting serious about his opponents and spare the boxing world from fighting former basketball players, MMA retreads, and former heavyweight champions who qualify for AARP.
Unfortunately, boxing probably needs Jake Paul much more than Jake Paul needs boxing.