Of all the ways that Friday’s fight between 58-year-old Mike Tyson and YouTube star Jake Paul had the potential to make the sport of boxing (and the estimated 150 million viewers who tuned in live on Netflix) unhappy, what we got over eight forgettable rounds feels about as bad as it gets.
For the record, yes, things could have been much worse if Tyson, the Hall of Famer and former undisputed heavyweight champion, had been hurt and had to be carried out of the ring on a stretcher.
This shows the huge risk that comes with scheduling the biggest professional fight in boxing history, with a 31-year age difference.
Instead, more than 72,000 people at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, booed the 27-year-old Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) at the end of this eight-round farce.
It does not make you feel any better, especially when you think about how rare it is these days for a heavily promoted “superfight” to wake up the masses and give boxing such a valuable, front-page closeup as Tyson’s return did.
Before we go into all the bad things that happened, let us look at the good things.
Tyson’s professional career ended shamefully in 2005 when he refused to get up from the canvas against journeyman Kevin McBride.
He made up for it physically by getting in great shape before the fight, even though he was over 60, and by acting crazy before the fight, like hitting Paul at Thursday’s weigh-in, which reminded us why he was such a popular (and sometimes controversial) reality TV star before the genre even existed.
Paul is a master marketer and a successful crossover fighter who has become a legitimate pay-per-view draw and promoter. He also pulled off a huge event that caught Netflix’s attention and brought them a lot of money and attention.
The people who really benefited from Paul’s great salesmanship were definitely women’s boxing stars Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. They thrilled the crowd with an action-packed rematch in the co-main event and both got record purses for female fighters.
On the other hand, it is one thing to bring a huge number of people to the table as boxing’s new disruptive ambassador who has gained a lot of new young fans thanks to his huge social media following.
It is one thing to finish the job and make sure customers are happy with a grand finale that was worth everyone’s time and money.
Sure, a cynic might ask, “What the hell did you expect from an opponent who is 58 years old?” However, it would not have been wrong to have thought the fight was a real professional one, since Tyson worked so hard to get it recognized as such.
At the end of the day, what Paul and Tyson did was just a show of fighting. No one would have complained if that fight had been anything like the one Tyson put on in 2020 against fellow legend Roy Jones Jr. in their PPV megafight.
Everything we got instead was a waste of time.
Tyson did what he could, and he looked pretty dangerous in the first round. But then his legs started to hurt, and he was not as effective the rest of the way.
In Round 3, Paul hit Tyson hard with a combination. It looked like Tyson was about to be knocked out right away, but Paul seemed to purposely slow down.
Paul’s decision to carry Tyson popped the balloon and made the whole thing a lie, whether it was because he wanted to be kind, because he was afraid Tyson would fight back, or, even worse, because the two of them had agreed (or were just talking) before the fight not to kill each other.
Before the fight, no one doubted that the two boxers would have to walk a fine line for this to be a huge entertainment success. But it was possible, especially if Tyson hit hard early on.
Still knowing that Tyson did not want the fight to end in a violent way that was not necessary, there were no knockdowns, very little two-way action, and Paul was too happy to jab his willing but wobbly opponent in the body from a distance.
Hard-core boxing fans think that Paul’s ambition and work ethic deserve respect, but not necessarily his record of fights against young, old, and often two weight divisions smaller opponents.
This means that Paul’s fights will be looked at with critical and cynical eyes. It is hard to believe that this result will help Paul get closer to either fighting for a cruiserweight world title or boxing against Canelo Alvarez, which would be the first “legitimate” fight.
There was already a carnival-like feel to the event, and seeing Paul go from acting out that he was going to kill Tyson after getting hit at the weigh-in to filling the stadium with the smell of old pro wrestling made it even worse.
Yes, we all let ourselves be lulled to sleep by the promise of closing our eyes and picturing Tyson from 1988 walking back through that door.
However, that does not mean we did not deserve more from the real fight that this strange matchup turned into.
The Jake Paul Experience has been a crazy and sometimes fun ride as he has made sports and entertainment work together. However, this was the night he really jumped the shark, missing a chance to show everyone how great this sport can be.