Jake Paul outpoints 58-year-old Mike Tyson in boxing borefest
27-year-old Jake Paul (11-1, 7KO) defeated 58-year-old Mike Tyson (50-7, 44KO) in an uninspiring, predictable eight-round bout in Arlington, Texas on Friday, November 15.
The pair fought at heavyweight over eight 2-minute rounds in front of 70,000 spectators in the AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, live on Netflix.
Despite hanging up his gloves over 19 years ago after acknowledging he was no longer able to compete, Mike Tyson was once again in the ring, but for the first time against a YouTuber.
Tyson came out fast, Paul was forced to hold in the first 15 seconds. Tyson was bobbing and weaving in his typical style and landed a left hook on Paul in the opener, but it was only an arm shot, with no power behind it. that first round was the entire fight for Tyson. From round two, he was finished.
Paul was boxing at range, as expected. Tyson was missing wildly, just like he did in his last fight with Kevin McBride, 19 years ago.
By round three, Tyson had stopped throwing. His movement and activity was almost non-existent. Paul landed three tame left hooks in a row.
Tyson was on the backfoot by the fifth, where Paul landed a double left hook and a big overhand right. “Iron Mike” was unable to get near to Paul, who constantly kept him at bay with his jab. Paul was able to land a double left hook to the head.
Paul had a wide stance, but Tyson’s feet appeared to be quite square. Tyson would slip the first or two shots from Paul, but then get caught by punch three and four.
In round eight, Tyson threw six punches to Paul’s 43, landing just one.
Tyson’s last fight against Kevin McBride in 2005, saw the former undisputed heavyweight champion gas out after a few rounds after missing wildly. He landed several low blows due to his accuracy being so off. And this fight was no different. He was spent after the first round and in rounds four and six, he failed to land a single shot.
Paul landed to 78 punches to Tyson’s 18. Paul threw 278 to Tyson’s 97, displaying the difference in fitness levels.
One judge didn’t give a single round to Tyson, scored at 80-72, the other two saw it 79-73 to Paul, likely awarding the retired legend the first round only.
Eddie Hearn was watching at ringside and was less than pleased with what he saw, “I never wanted to see it, and when I did watch it, I definitely didn’t ant to see it. I’m just glad everyone is ok.”
BBN Editor, Tim Rickson, shared his view on the contest, “As expected, Tyson is over the hill and unable to compete. Jake Paul might have Mike Tyson’s name as a scalp on his record, but it actually means nothing.
“If anything, Pauls’ stock has gone down. He talks about fighting Canelo for the world title, yet he has built a reputation of fighting ageing non-boxers.”
Mike Tyson is set to receive a minimum of $20 million for the 16 minutes of boxing time.