Long before the end, it was sad. Mike Tyson never seemed to be able to beat Jake Paul and had no chance of beating Father Time.
To Jake Paul’s credit, he put on a spectacular event and treated his idol not only with respect but also with kindness.
A 31-year age difference is indeed too great a gap for a 58-year-old man to overcome. Nineteen years after his last serious fight, Iron Mike had become a little rusty.
Paul got there quickly, although Tyson did enough that the first round was the only one he won.
The YouTuber still did enough to secure his 11th win in 12 fights, but not enough to inflict serious damage on a man who was getting older with each round.
Tyson’s feat was to reach the finish line of the eight laps, albeit with a little help from his new friend.
There were a few boos at the end, but most of the crowd at the packed Dallas Cowboys Stadium enjoyed their strange evening and joined Paul in paying tribute to the legend.
The good Texas boys and their girls arrived late from the bars. Most of the minds under those Stetson hats were focused solely on Tyson and the curiosity of what might be his final appearance in boxing’s last-chance room.
It wasn’t a fight that the crowd cared about much, with the exception of Katie Taylor, until she fought her way into the most scandalous of the final fights, in which she received some very questionable decisions and was booed out of the ring.
As fans waited to take their seats under the stadium’s massive dome, they were preceded by the announcement that Tyson and Paul had set a new Lone Star State fight record, with $17.8 million in ticket sales.
That alone wouldn’t have covered the multi-million dollar earnings of both leads (think $15 million for Mike and $35 million for Jake), but it gave Netflix a solid foundation to fund the cost of this retro extravaganza.
The surge was accompanied by a late price surge that offset much of the decline that resulted from a drastic cut after Tyson’s stomach ulcer forced the fight to be postponed, casting doubt on whether it would ever happen.
That and a luxury eight-person hospitality box set up ringside that sold for $2 million 48 hours before the first bell rang.
As the signs on every highway warn us: Don’t mess with Texas.
If this place wants to throw a fight involving a bad boy approaching bus driving age and stir up critical controversy, that’s nobody else’s business.
The crowd was ready to party. As the atmosphere grew louder, the roaring applause for every mention of Tyson by the ring announcer managed to drown out the vile rap the DJ was playing.
When the biggest screens in every sports stadium in the world showed Paul arriving at the building with his close friend, the reception was mixed.
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Iron Mike’s familiar, distant walk to his dressing room nearly lifted the roof off AT&T.
At that time, this super vehicle with a capacity of 80,000 seats seemed almost full and the loyalty of the majority was not in doubt.
None of them cared in the least that the eight-round duration was reduced from three to two minutes or that the gloves weighed from ten to fourteen ounces. Be grateful for small mercies.
It was an incredible opportunity to see one of the greatest heavyweights of all time return to the years when he was the baddest man on the planet.
And see Paul the showman driven into the ring in an open-top emerald green car with a pigeon as a traveling companion to please Tyson.
Iron Mike did what he could. In black, of course. Until chaos.
The hard work he had put into this comeback was evident in the torn state of his body.
Turn by turn
1 – As expected, Tyson came out firing and three or four good punches counted more than Paul’s punches. 10-9
2 – Paul was moving. Tyson couldn’t catch him. The shot prevailed. 9-10
3 – Paul begins to dominate. Catching his idol with precise combinations. 9-10
4 – The crowd now falls silent as Tyson struggles to make any impact. 9-10
5 – Tyson lands a left club but spends the rest of the fifth round eating leather. 9-10
6 – Paul had stuck his tongue out mockingly at the end of the fifth but Iron Mike couldn’t find a way to punish the insult in the sixth. 9-10
7 – Paul seems to relax with Tyson and subtly pity him. 9-10
8 – Tyson comes out tired for the last round. Paul clearly carries him in his arms and in the final seconds he steps aside and bows to one of the greats. 9-10
