Jake Paul defeated Mike Tyson by unanimous decision Friday night in Arlington Texas, at the AT&T stadium. The public, watching on a laggy Netflix stream, was unanimous in its judgement that the much-hyped bout was mostly boring and uninspired.
Over the eight rounds of the contest, the 58-year-old Tyson only collected 18 total punches landed, to Paul’s 78.
For context, the co-main event saw Amanda Serrano land 324 punches in her decision loss to Katie Taylor, who connected with 217.
The bout contained few highlights, and even the handful of dramatic moments would frequently show to be glancing blows when replayed between rounds. Instead, the fight mostly consisted of lateral movement by Paul, slipping just out of reach of his older opponent, who struggled to cut off the ring. In the commentary booth, former Tyson opponent and hall of famer Roy Jones Jr. regularly mentioned Tyson’s “legs being gone,” referencing his apparent inability to explode into range.
Was Tyson vs Paul rigged?
Yes, the Paul vs Tyson bout was in fact rigged: for Tyson.
The contest had several notable rule-pecularities despite being sanctioned as a professional contest, and appearing on both boxers’ professional records. The rounds were only two minutes long, as opposed to the traditional three, constituting an 8-minute difference over the course of the contest. However, 2-minute rounds are believed to be a significant factor in women’s boxing having a substantially lower knockout rate. The longer rounds traditional in men’s boxing allow a fighter to capitalize on his opponent’s fatigue in order to connect punches, in ways that the higher break frequency forgoes.
The bout was also fought wearing much heavier gloves: 14 ounces compared to the usual 10.
Why did Mike Tyson bite his glove?
Sharp-eyed viewers (the commentary booth included) spotted Tyson seeming to bite his glove throughout the bout. Jones Jr. speculated that there may be a problem with his mouthguard, but commentary partner Mauro Ranallo argued that he had seen the habit in many of Tyson’s fights during his prime.
The moment went viral on social media, calling back to the infamous ear-biting incident against Evander Holyfield.
After the fight, Tyson admitted in the ring that he simply had a biting fixation.
“I have a biting fixation.”
— All the Smoke Boxing (@atsboxing) November 16, 2024
Good thing @MikeTyson bit his gloves and not @jakepaul 😅 #PaulTyson pic.twitter.com/60hMlpJlO8
What comes next for Paul and Tyson?
Despite its seeming unlikelihood, Paul spent fight week building a case to fight the unified super-middleweight champion Saúl (Canelo) Álvarez. Paul advocated to fight the smaller man in the cruiserweight division, two weight classes above where Canelo usually competes.
Paul said the bout should be for a cruiserweight championship, although given that neither of the fighters currently hold a title in the weight class, it is unclear how that might come to pass.
Tyson claimed after the fight that he may not be finished as a pro boxer. He brought up potentially fighting his opponent’s sibling Logan Paul, and the evening ended with a response from Logan that many online found to be in poor-taste.
“I’ll kill you Mike.”