On a night marred by Netflix buffering issues and poor streaming quality, Jake Paul did what many expected and defeated the legendary Mike Tyson in an eight round boxing match on Friday in Arlington, Texas.
Paul won the fight on the judges’ scorecards by counts of 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73.
The bout itself was devoid of any firefights between the two or even signature moments. The 58-year-old Tyson, who fought with a knee brace on his right leg, slowed as the fight went on as did Paul. The crowd responded in kind, booing in frustration as the fight developed.
Perhaps the bigger story of the night were the issues the streaming giant had starting with the Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor co-main event rematch. Users on social media complained loudly about experiencing problems with buffering, unavailable video, and the video quality itself — a narrative Netflix didn’t want to deal with as their NFL Christmas Day games approach in addition to the launch of WWE in January.
However, it should be noted that the amount of viewers worldwide for the Tyson vs. Paul fight was considerably more than the NFL or WWE are expected to garner. During his post-fight promo, Paul referenced 120 million viewers but that is unverified as of this writing.
Tyson declined to announce his retirement with Jake’s brother Logan Paul offering to fight Tyson next which the legend quickly agreed to.
The rules were eight two-minute rounds with 14 ounce gloves, four ounces bigger than for usual heavyweight fights.
The fight between Tyson (50-7) and the 27-year-old Paul (11-1) was first announced in early-March for late-July, but was pushed back due to Tyson suffering ulcer complications in June.
Perhaps the most viral moment of the night was Tyson doing a backstage interview, walking away, and showing his bare buttocks in an unintended moment of hilarity.
It was Tyson’s first fight of any kind since a November 2020 exhibition boxing bout with Roy Jones Jr. which was preceded by a 15-year-gap of inactivity.
