In a turn of events shocking only to the most optimistic among us, a 27-year-old entered a boxing ring against a 58-year-old on Friday night and proceeded to commit what would otherwise be considered borderline elder abuse if not for the million-dollar paydays involved.
The Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight was a debacle from start to finish, and though generations of fight fans tuned in to watch (and bet on) the made-for-streaming event, it didn’t take long to realize what a massive waste of time this was.
Inside the ropes, the fight itself — a somehow sanctioned bout and not an exhibition — was the total farce we expected.
Technically, Paul was declared the victor, but there were no winners on Friday. Certainly not any worth celebrating. There were, however, plenty of losers including, but not limited to…
1. Netflix
Holy cow, this could not have gone worse from a public relations perspective for the streaming giant.
If this was a test run for the millions of concurrent users Netflix can expect for its upcoming Christmas Day NFL games and WWE Raw broadcasts, it was an epic fail.
FTW’s Nick Schwartz summed it up best:
Constant buffering and blurry images marred Friday’s undercard, leaving many upset viewers wondering what sort of stress testing Netflix did before millions of people were expected to tune in at the same time. Midway through the Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano lightweight title bout, nearly every trending topic on X was related to the fight, with thousands of people complaining about their experience.
There were complaints from people streaming on TV, on tablets and on their phones. It was bad. Especially considering this is not the first time Netflix has streamed live events. We’ve seen similar issues when Netflix broadcast a Chris Rock concert, The Roast of Tom Brady and more.
Can Netflix solve these issues before the behemoths of the NFL and WWE entrust their audiences to the service? That’s quite literally a billion-dollar question.
2. Mike Tyson
Props to Tyson for stepping into the ring at 58 years old after dealing with an ulcer earlier this year, but that’s where the congratulations begin and end. More than anything else, this was a sad display from a notoriously bad human who inexplicably rebounded in the public consciousness following a cameo in The Hangover trilogy.
If you tuned in hoping to Tyson turn back the clock, you were disappointed. If you just hoped Tyson could avoid embarrassing himself, you were disappointed. If you thought two-minute rounds and 14-ounce gloves would level the playing field, you were only playing yourself.
At the end of the day, Tyson earned a reported $20 million for letting a self-described heel toy with him in the ring. It’s hard to see this as anything but a nadir for a sport already dripping in cynicism. A fitting performance for anyone who expected anything else.
3. Jake Paul
Does Jake Paul actually want to be a champion boxer? Or is boxing just a means to extract the biggest paydays for his content as possible? After watching the 27-year-old waste a portion of his athletic prime and star power on such a sham, it’s hard to conclude anything but the latter.
Tyson spent the first 45 seconds of the fight unleashing everything he had, only for Paul to spend the remaining seven rounds carrying his opponent across the finish line. At multiple times, Paul had his hands down seemingly begging Tyson to land a blow and get the extremely pro-Iron Mike crowd back into the action.
Paul spent the final 10 seconds of the bout literally bowing down to Tyson, then admitted afterwards he was pulling his punches all fight because he didn’t want to “hurt” him. It’s hard to fathom anything more insulting to Tyson’s boxing legacy — and even harder to fathom Tyson ever affording any opponent the same courtesy if the roles were reversed.
As Hector Diaz perfectly stated on Bluesky: “If you’re interested in the Tyson-Paul match, you might enjoy pro wrestling. It’s also a predetermined fight between personalities. The only difference is that wrestling has good payoffs and you’re in on the joke.”
4. Anyone who bet on Mike Tyson
And boy-oh-boy were there a LOT of Mike Tyson bettors.
At BetMGM, 69 percent of all bettors on the three-way line took Tyson (+180), including 54 percent of all money wagered.
Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe it was a sucker bet or maybe it was just bettors attempting to get their limits raised by purposely picking a losing side. In either case, Paul’s victory saw the house absolutely clean up.
On the other hand, Drake continued his impressive streak of horrible gambling by taking Tyson. So there’s that.
5. Roy Jones Jr.
Former champion boxer Roy Jones Jr. sat ringside on the official call of the bout and kept insisting something was wrong with Tyson’s mouth.
Every round it looked like Tyson was fidgeting with his mouthguard or biting his gloves. This, actually, was a very normal tick for Tyson and something he has done in past fights.
Jones Jr. — who previously fought Tyson in a November 2020 exhibition — refused to believe this.
Repeatedly and erroneously, Jones Jr. kept talking about Tyson’s mouth even as play-by-play announcer Mauro Ranallo kept trying to tell his colleague this was a common occurrence for Tyson.
You could sense Ranallo’s frustration building each round as he attempted to actually inform viewers while Jones Jr. continued to baselessly speculate.
It was far from the most upsetting part of the night, but it certainly made for an annoyingly repetitive conversation throughout the main event. The narrative was finally put to bed when ringside reporter Ariel Helwani asked Tyson about tick immediately after the fight.
Tyson confirmed he just has “a biting fixation” after which, mercifully, we were all able to go to bed, too.
