Mike Tyson loses to Jake Paul via unanimous decision in fight that didn’t match hype
Nov 15, 2024, 10:53 PM | Updated: 11:02 pm
Jake Paul and Mike Tyson embrace after their heavyweight boxing match, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jake Paul won a unanimous decision over Mike Tyson as the hits didn’t match the hype in a fight between a young YouTuber-turned-boxer and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Friday night.
All the hate from the pre-fight buildup was gone, with Paul even stopping to pay homage with a bow to Tyson before the final bell sounded at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
The fight wasn’t close on the judge’s cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 edge and the other two calling it 79-73.
Tyson came after Paul immediately after the opening bell and landed a couple of quick punches but didn’t try much else the rest of the way.
A ringside look at #PaulTyson 👀 pic.twitter.com/WZlzvJ7gKX
— Netflix (@netflix) November 16, 2024
Even fewer rounds and shorter rounds couldn’t do much to generate action for a 58-year-old in his first sanctioned pro fight in almost 20 years, facing a boxing neophyte with hopes of fighting for championships somewhere in the future.
Paul was more aggressive after the quickly burst from Tyson in the opening seconds, but the punching wasn’t very efficient. There were quite a few wild swings and misses.
Tyson mostly sat back and waited for Paul to come to him, with a few exceptions. It was quite the contract the co-main event, another slugfest in which Katie Taylor kept her undisputed super lightweight championship with a decision over Amanda Serrano.
It was the first sanctioned fight since 2005 for Tyson. Paul started fighting a little more than four years ago.
The fight was originally scheduled for July 20 but had to be postponed when Tyson was treated for a stomach ulcer after falling ill on a flight.
Netflix experiences streaming delays leading up to Tyson-Paul fight
Netflix’s first attempt at handling a live sports event did not receive a passing grade.
The fight Friday night between Tyson and Paul experienced streaming problems according to many viewers on social media. Many viewers took to Twitter/X and Bluesky to experience their frustrations with streaming and buffering problems before and during the fight.
According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight.
Netflix representatives had no comment via e-mails to The Associated Press on the streaming problems viewers experienced leading up to or during the fight.
The bout was Netflix’s biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon. It streamed globally to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost.
Netflix will broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day and will begin streaming WWE “Raw” on Jan. 6.
