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Jake Paul Took It Easy On Mike Tyson And Didn’t Knock Him Out On Purpose Despite Boos During Boring Fight

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Mike Tyson was visibly exhausted by the fourth round of Friday’s boxing match against Jake Paul. However, the 27-year-old did not pounce on the 58-year-old despite thunderous boos from the crowd at AT&T Stadium, which was extremely underwhelmed by the boring fight.

Those who tuned in to watch the bout on Netflix were equally as disappointed and cried elder abuse.

Tyson got paid $20 million to step into the ring with Paul, who got paid $40 million. The crowd of 80,000 was excited to see the former try to turn back the clock on Friday night in Arlington against someone more than half his age. It was an electric environment as Iron Mike walked out to the ring.

Both guys landed a few good shots early while they felt each other out.

Unfortunately, all of the buzz in the building was gone by round four. Tyson, who is less than a decade out from senior citizen discounts, looked tired. Paul did not jump all over him. He showed mercy.

The boos were equally as loud as the cheers when Paul bowed to Tyson during the closing moments.

Meanwhile, the massive amount of viewers at home were lucky if their stream loaded long enough to watch any of the eight rounds in their entirety. It got so bad that, at one point, 6.6 million people decided to stream Antonio Brown’s live video of the scoreboard instead of the actual Netflix production.

Mike Tyson Jake Paul Stream Netflix Buffer
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All three judges scored the fight for Paul, 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73. The announcement was met with even more boos.

Paul is now 6-0 against opponents who already retired from their respective sports — at age 39 or older.

  • Nate Robinson, retired NBA player, 40 years old
  • Ben Askrin, retired MMA fighter, 40 years old
  • Tyron Woodley, retired MMA fighter, 42 years old
  • Anderson Silva, retired MMA fighter, 49 years old
  • Nate Diaz, semi-retired MMA fighter, 39 years old
  • Mike Tyson, retired boxer, 58 years old

Jake Paul’s lone loss of his boxing career came against 25-year-old Tommy Fury, an active boxer. As a result, elder abuse jokes ran wild on social media.

Despite all of the chatter about his opponent online, Paul offered high praise to Tyson. He was genuinely grateful for the opportunity.

Jake Paul doesn’t care about the haters!

Tyson’s stamina (or lack thereof) presented Paul with multiple opportunities to really go to work. The almost 60-year-old ran out of gas. The not-yet 30-year-old had plenty left in the tank.

Paul intentionally let up. He actually chose not to go for the knockout.

I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.

I tried to give the best fight I possibly could, but when someone’s just surviving in the ring, it’s hard to make it exciting. I could’t really get him to engage me or slip shots and do something super cool or whatever.

— Jake Paul

The fight was boring because Tyson was exhausted and Paul took his foot off of the pedal. Fans were disappointed by the lack of action. The victor does not care.

I don’t care what people have to say. They’re always going to have something to say. It is what it is.

— Jake Paul

Most Valuable Promotions’ co-founder offered an additional perspective.

The only way people would have been happy is if Jake lost. People would’ve been like “oh, what a great fight! Mike’s a legend!” [If] he knocked out Mike Tyson, it would have been rigged. It went eight rounds, “Mike wasn’t trying. The fight wasn’t good enough.” It was an unbelievable display between a 58-year-old legend and 27-year-old relatively young boxer.

And [Paul] outboxed Mike Tyson like he said he was gonna do.

— Nakisa Bidarian

There might be some truth to that line of thought. However, for Paul to admit that he took it easy on Tyson does not help the optics of what was, if we’re being honest, an absolute snoozer.

Grayson Weir BroBible editor avatar
Senior Editor at BroBible covering all five major sports and every niche sport imaginable, found primarily in the college space. I don't drink coffee, I wake up jacked.
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