Jake Paul had to go all eight rounds to beat Mike Tyson in front of a packed house at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Friday night.
Over 75,000 fans packed into ‘Jerry World’ to witness the historic heavyweight showdown, with tens of millions expected to have tuned in on Netflix. The stars were out in force, including Jake’s brother Logan Paul and a host of other social media and sport stars.
The controversial bout saw social media star-turned-fighter Paul take on the beloved boxing icon Tyson at the age of 58. Despite many fearing for the Brooklyn native’s safety, there was also belief that career-cruiserweight Paul may not be able to take a major heavyweight shot.
Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson as fight goes the distance in Dallas
On a night devoid of knockouts, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson failed to deliver the stoppage in their highly-anticipated clash. Their initial July date was rescheduled when the former heavyweight champion suffered an ulcer flare-up that left him fearing for his life.
But he looked in phenomenal shape as he made the walk for the first time as a professional since 2005, when he was stopped by Kevin McBride. Paul made him wait with a lengthy ring walk before boxing icon ‘Iron Mike’ entered second in his traditional minimalist black garb.
However, he quickly tired as Paul trudged to a decision victory, almost at times looking as though he didn’t want to unload on Tyson. Ultimately, the scorecards read 78-72 on one and 79-71 on two as the YouTuber picked up the biggest, if not the most impressive, win of his career.
The crowd erupted upon the sight of Tyson, who stepped into the ring as a major underdog. And he and Paul gave them what they wanted, with the elder fighter attacking early and aggressively from the opening bell.
Paul managed to evade and land some shots of his own, but appeared nervous about taking the big punches. It seemed that Tyson actually took the first, particularly given the short two-minute duration that favored him early.
Within minutes, however, Tyson’s slowing down became noticable and by round five it was a tough watch as Paul unloaded. The final few rounds were pitter patter, with the pair even bowing in respect to close out the eighth round.
Record-breaking crowd watched live at AT&T Stadium
Before the doors had even opened, Paul and Tyson’s showdown was already breaking records. With the fight being aired free as part of the Netflix subscription, tens of millions were expected to watch live and a packed crowd filled the stadium for fight night as well.
Video of a pre-fight slap from Tyson to Paul went viral on social media, being viewed well over a quarter of a billion times within 24 hours. And the fight grossed $17.8million in ticket sales, meaning a record gate in the United States outside of Las Vegas for a boxing event.
BAVAFA Sports, the company owned by Most Valuable Promotion co-founder Nakisa Bidarian, also tweeted: “Paul Tyson / Taylor Serrano breaks US record for commercial distribution location sales, breaking the previous record held by Mayweather McGregor.”
The record-breaking crowd were treated to an unbelieveable show in the co-main event as Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor went punch-for-punch in a razor-close rematch. The Irishwoman came out victorious, much to the annoyance of the Dallas faithful.