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Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson: No one was impressed by social media star's win over 58-year-old former champ

Paul won a unanimous decision over Tyson after an uninspired 8 rounds

jack baer
Staff writer
·4 min read
Jake Paul, left, fights Mike Tyson during their heavyweight boxing match, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson didn't live up to any sort of hype. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Jake Paul's boxing match against Mike Tyson had plenty of hype. It still ended up being a 27-year-old fighting a 58-year-old.

Technically, Paul won the fight. He landed more punches, won more rounds, had his hand raised by the referee. It's still hard to say he helped anything but his bank account by beating up a man four years from being able to pick up social security checks.

The match somehow received official sanctioning, the largest ever gap in age allowed by the people in charge of the beleaguered sport. For a round or two, it looked like it might be an actual fight, but then Paul wobbled Tyson in the third and it was very clear what was happening from there on that.

Tyson didn't have the reach or quickness to touch Paul, who worked him over with the jab again and again. At one point, commentator Rosie Perez was openly wondering why Paul "wasn't just teeing off" on Tyson, and the answer was likely that the YouTuber and his backers probably wanted the fight to go the distance. Tyson landed a total of 18 punches across eight two-minute rounds.

Paul can at least still say he draws a crowd like no one in boxing, but that might have been counter-productive. Fighting one of the legends of the '90s attracted a new level of fans, eager to see Tyson fight again and perhaps finally end this sideshow. Instead, they got Paul carrying an old man. Paul's entire breadth of official wins consists of MMA fighters, old men, complete no-names and a former NBA player.

No objective observers were happy with what they were seeing. Some were frustrated, others were just sad.