Everyone’s saying the SAME thing after boxing legend Mike Tyson, 58, limped out to Gen Z YouTuber Jake Paul, 27, in Netflix freak show fight that enraged the internet

Everyone’s saying the SAME thing after boxing legend Mike Tyson, 58, limped out to Gen Z YouTuber Jake Paul, 27, in Netflix freak show fight that enraged the internet

It was one of the most highly-anticipated boxing matches of the year, yet the bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul proved to be a huge disappointment – with everyone coming to the same conclusion.

Tyson looked to be every bit a 58-year-old as he lost to Paul in a unanimous decision in front of 70,000 people at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday. He was sluggish and stiff, stumbling around the ring while failing to make an impact outside of the first 30 seconds – especially as his right knee was in a brace.

Many wondered why it was allowed for a man of Tyson’s age and condition to be allowed to take part in such an event against a far younger and fitter 27-year-old. While others tore into Gen Z YouTuber Paul for taking the cash before knocking around his much older rival with ease, with some branding it ‘elder abuse’.

Among the celebrities and fans worldwide who slammed the bout, MMA star Conor McGregor offered a bleak assessment of the occasion in a now deleted tweet. ‘A 16-minute spar in sparring gloves. F**k off,’ the Irishman said.

WBA light middleweight champion Terence Crawford added, ‘I love Mike Tyson, but they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash, to train that long and only throw 97 punches the whole fight is crazy. I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt out there.’
English boxer Tony Bellew gave Paul some credit while recognizing Tyson’s flaws: ‘I don’t like this stupid idiot kid but I will say this.. He stopped beating on Mike there and showed him some respect and dignity by letting him survive!

Bellew continued, ‘He didn’t go for the KO there he stepped off him and let him be.. Mike we all adore you king your a super hero to all of us from the proper fight business!’ NBA icon Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson posted, ‘Just sad smh. I cut it off 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 was not great for boxing.’

American journalist Shea Serrano joked about how the fight looked compared to the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight immediately preceding it, saying, ‘going from the taylor-serrano fight to the paul-tyson fight is like if you watched the super bowl and then immediately after the super bowl you watched two people play paper football on a table in denny’s at 3am.’

In his hey day, Tyson’s bread-and-butter was body shots. In this bout, he only landed four blows to the body while eating 20 from Paul. Even still, the 58-year-old appeared to indicate in the ring that he’d want to fight Jake’s brother, former boxer and current WWE superstar Logan Paul. The older Paul brother replied, ‘I’d kill you Mike.’

While it served as an embarrassment to the sport of boxing, it proved to be a massive pay day for Netflix and Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions – who reported a gate of $17.8 million (£14.1million).

But it’s not like Netflix’s presentation was smooth sailing. Tens of thousands of customers reported issues with sluggish streams and buffering throughout the fight and even in the undercard bouts. Even the broadcast team itself had issues – with boxer Evander Holyfield unable to hear questions from presenter Kate Scott. Additionally, when interviewing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, his microphone cut out while he was speaking.