The boos from the crowd wanting more action were growing louder again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves before the final bell and bowed to 58-year-old Mike Tyson.
Paying homage to one of the biggest names in boxing history didn’t do much for the fans who packed the house of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys on Friday night.
[Relive the fight in our blow-by-blow live coverage wrap.]
Paul won an eight-round unanimous decision over Tyson as the hits didn’t match the hype in a clash between the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer and the former heavyweight champion in his first sanctioned professional bout in nearly 20 years.
All the hate from the pre-fight buildup was gone, replaced by boos from bewildered fans hoping for something more from a fight that had sparked many questions about its legitimacy long before.
American basketball icon Magic Johnson expressed his disappointment on X, saying: “The fight wasn’t great for boxing.”
Just sad. I stopped it because I couldn’t watch anymore. It’s sad to see Mike Tyson like this because I went to every Tyson fight.
This fight tonight wasn’t great for boxing.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 16, 2024
The fight wasn’t close on the judges’ cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 advantage and the other two calling it 79-73.
“Forget it for Mike,” Paul said in the ring, not getting much of a response from the crowd who began filing out before the decision was announced. “He’s the greatest to ever do it. I look at him with admiration. I am inspired by him.”
Tyson went after Paul right after the opening bell and landed a couple of quick punches, but didn’t try much else the rest of the way.
Even fewer punches than the normal 10 or 12 and two-minute punches instead of three, along with heavier gloves designed to decrease punching power, couldn’t do much to generate action.
Paul was more aggressive after Tyson’s quick flurry in the opening seconds, but the punches weren’t very efficient. There were some wild swings and mistakes.
“I was trying to hurt him a little bit,” said Paul, who improved to 11-1. “I was afraid he would hurt me. I was trying to hurt him. I did my best.
Paul said he slowed down starting in the third round because he thought Tyson was tired and vulnerable.
“I wanted to put on a show for the fans, but I didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t need to be hurt,” Paul said.
It was the first sanctioned fight since 2005 for Tyson, who fought Roy Jones Jr in a much more entertaining exhibition in 2020. Paul started fighting just over four years ago.
“I didn’t prove anything to anyone but myself,” Tyson said when asked what it meant to complete the fight. “I’m not one of those guys who tries to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”
Tyson slapped Paul in the face at the weigh-in one night before the fight, and they exchanged insults at many of the publicity events before and after the postponement.
The hatred was long gone by the end of the disappointing fight.
“I have so much respect for him,” Paul said. “That thing of violence, of war between us, like after he slapped me, I wanted to be aggressive, take him down and knock him out and all that stuff. This kind of went away as the rounds went on.
