Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul: “It’s such an honor”, here’s who won the fight of legends in the ring broadcast on Netflix

At 58, the heavyweight legend Mike Tyson did not last the distance against the YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul in a professional exhibition-style fight on Friday, November 15, 2024, in Arlington (Texas, United States).

A show broadcast on Netflix

Jake Paul was unanimously declared the winner of the baroque fight that he organized with his promotion company, and which offered this show specialist publicity worthy of the legend Iron Mike Tyson live on the Netflix streaming platform.

“It’s such an honor,” Mike Tyson is a legend, the greatest in history, he inspired me. It was very hard as expected,” said Jake Paul. “I’m happy, I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself, I was happy with what I was able to do. do”, commented Tyson for his part, who gave the change and dominated the first two rounds before largely declining physically from the third round, where he suffered a good sequence from his opponent.

Tyson’s first fight since 2005

Tyson did not specify whether this fight, his first among professionals since 2005, was indeed the last of a very long career: “I don’t know, it depends.”

Jake Paul, an American “dirty kid” who made his fortune thanks to his videos on social networks, aged 27, was not born during the splendor of “Iron Mike”, world heavyweight champion in 1986 when the internet did not exist. During his tumultuous career that began in 1985, Tyson had won 50 victories including 44 by knockout, but has now suffered seven defeats, including two famous defeats against Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997.

Many observers, including former American boxing world champion Deontay Wilder, have expressed concern about seeing a nearly sixty-year-old lined up in a professional fight, saying they fear a serious injury. The fight was slightly adapted for this purpose, with eight rounds of two minutes (instead of 12 rounds of 3 minutes) and slightly thicker gloves.

More than 72,000 spectators

Tyson had to postpone the fight, initially scheduled for July 20, after receiving medical treatment on May 26 aboard a plane due to an ulcer. Friday in Arlington, more than 72,000 spectators were white-hot by a furious opening fight which saw Irishwoman Katie Taylor retain her unified super-lightweight title against Puerto Rican Amanda Serrano, by unanimous decision of the judges. Jake Paul then made a sensational entrance to the whistles of the audience seated in a customized green car with his brother Logan, his partner in escapades, who had been beaten by another boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather Jr., during a poor exhibition in 2021.

Tyson made a sober entrance, dressed in black, his goatee whitened by the years, to the cheers of the public, ultimately disappointed to see his slow-walking hero beaten by a neo-boxer. Jake Paul, a controversial influencer with 20.8 million subscribers on YouTube, has transformed himself into a boxer but above all into a businessman, at the head of a promotion company, a venture capital fund, a sports betting site or even a brand of body care products. With now 11 successes and one defeat among the pros, his good performance on Friday could make him want to challenge younger boxers.