Wow. What a let-down. One of the biggest promotions of the year. Netflix’s first ever live boxing event. Around 108 million viewers, according to Hollywood Weekly. All that for an amateur fight.
The matchup between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson had been in the works for months, first being announced March 7th of this past year. With the fight taking place on November 15th, the hype was unimaginable. Honestly, I feel that was the problem. Why was this fight so hyped? This isn’t “Iron Mike” Tyson or Kid Dynamite of the ‘80s, and he isn’t fighting some prodigy. This was a fight between a 58 year-old man and a 27 year-old YouTuber cosplaying as a boxer.
Now, this is not to say that Jake Paul isn’t talented. As one of the preeminent entertainers of the generation, he has a knack for selling fights and has excellent trash talk. That, however, is where his talent ends. He truly demonstrates nothing more than mediocre boxing during his fights.
In fact, as many fans have pointed out, he has an incredibly padded record. A majority of his wins have come from older, retired, UFC fighters who are past their prime, such as Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz. When he did finally face another boxer his own size and age in Tommy Fury, he lost a split decision—going to show how much he really can’t back up his talks of greatness.
In some ways, Mike Tyson was the perfect choice for Paul’s next fight, carrying on his tradition of picking retired greats as his opponents. At 58 years old, more than twice the age of Paul, it’s a miracle he made it into the ring. It speaks to how great Tyson once was that people genuinely believed he had a shot, and that some are now claiming the fight was rigged. I really wish he could have pulled it off, but he just didn’t have a fighting chance; especially with Tyson being in the hospital just 6 months earlier due to an ulcer flare up, claiming he “almost died in June.”
The only saving grace of the night were the fights before it. The title card contained three fights leading up to Tyson and Paul; Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes and Mario Barrios vs. Abel Ramos for the WBC welterweight title, and Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor for the lightweight title. While the first fight between Goyat and Nunes acted almost like a warm-up for the night, not providing any real entertainment, the talent shot up for the latter two matches. Barrios and Ramos went to a split draw after an incredible 12 round war, with each dropping the other to the canvas, along with some brutal exchanges from both.
Taylor and Serrano upped the ante from there, giving us what some are calling the best women’s boxing match of the year, with Taylor winning a unanimous decision. That would be about where the talent ends. With excitement at the peak of the night coming off of those two mind-blowing matches, the high hopes for the evening would crumble as Tyson and Paul finally met in the ring.
As for whether this is the end for Tyson, the answer remains up in the air. While many fans like myself hope he never makes the fateful walk back to the ring, there’s no guarantee this is the end, with the star himself jokingly calling out Logan Paul, Jake’s brother.
There’s no doubt that this fight was a money grab for Tyson. He ended up walking away with 20 million dollars—a fat paycheck for anything, let alone essentially standing in the ring. The only question worth asking left is whether he’ll be tempted back for another payday.
