ARLINGTON, Texas —The boos from a crowd wanting more action were growing again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves before the final bell, and bowed toward 58-year-old Mike Tyson.
Paying homage to one of the biggest names in boxing history didn’t do much for the fans that filled the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys on Friday night.
Paul won a unanimous decision over Tyson as the hits didn’t match the hype in a fight between the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer and the former heavyweight champion in his first sanctioned pro fight in almost 20 years.
All the hate from the pre-fight buildup was gone, replaced by boos from bewildered fans hoping for more action in a fight that drew plenty of questions about its legitimacy long before it happened.
The fight wasn’t close on the judge’s cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 edge and the other two calling it 79-73.
Tyson came after Paul immediately after the opening bell and landed a couple of quick punches but didn’t try much else the rest of the way.
Even fewer rounds and shorter rounds, along with heavier gloves designed to lessen the power of punches, couldn’t do much to generate action.
Paul was more aggressive after the quick burst from Tyson in the opening seconds, but the punching wasn’t very efficient. There were quite a few wild swings and misses.
Tyson mostly sat back and waited for Paul to come to him, with a few exceptions. It was quite the contrast to the co-main event, another slugfest between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in which Taylor kept her undisputed super lightweight championship with another disputed decision.
It was the first sanctioned fight since 2005 for Tyson, who fought Roy Jones in a much more entertaining exhibition in 2020. Paul started fighting a little more than four years ago.
The fight was originally scheduled for July 20 but had to be postponed when Tyson was treated for a stomach ulcer after falling ill on a flight.
Netflix issues
Netflix’s first attempt at handling a live sports event did not receive a passing grade.
The fight Friday night between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul experienced streaming problems according to many viewers on social media. Many viewers took to Twitter/X and Bluesky to express their frustrations with streaming and buffering problems before and during the fight.
According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight.
The bout was scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to the normal three minutes and 10 or 12 rounds for most pro fights.
Paul won the fight by unanimous decision.
Netflix representatives had no comment via e-mails to The Associated Press on the streaming problems viewers experienced leading up to or during the fight.
The bout between the YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, and Tyson, 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was Netflix’s biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon. It streamed globally to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost.
Netflix will broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day and will begin streaming WWE “Raw” on Jan. 6.
The streaming delays weren’t the only problems Netflix experienced leading up to the fight.
Viewers saw Tyson’s bare butt in only a jockstrap when he walked away at the end of a pre-fight interview in his locker room.
For some reason, Netflix chose to make light of the faux pas.