Netflix’s Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match failed to live up to the hype. The men faced off against each other in front of 73,200 people in Arlington, Texas, in a live event streamed to 65 million devices on Nov. 15. Ultimately, it was a disappointing affair.
Much of the action of the night took place before the headline fight. The first fight of the main card saw India’s Neeraj Goyat defeat Brazilian Whindersson Nunes via unanimous decision, squarely beating him in almost every round of the six-round fight. In the third round, Goyat added some extra humiliation to the defeat when he moved his opponent to the corner and dry-humped him, leading to the referee stepping in and breaking them up.
The next bout was 12 rounds between champion Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos for the WBC belt. Barrios almost knocked Ramos down in the first round and then did so cleanly in the second. It looked like an easy night for the champion until the sixth round, when the tables turned and Ramos knocked Barrios down with a right that snuck past his defense. The rest of the fight saw both fighters slugging it out in a bloody battle that ended in a split-decision draw. “When you get two Mexican fighters like us, you’re going to get great action, guaranteed,” Ramos stated in his post-fight interview.
The penultimate fight of the night and the co-main event belonged to Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. The pair had previously met in Madison Square Garden, where Taylor won in a controversial decision. History repeated itself and saw Taylor take the win with much controversy. Taylor landed an accidental headbutt in round four of the 10-round fight that opened a cut above Serrano’s right eye. A slew of additional headbutts throughout the night led to the cut opening further and spewing blood. Taylor was deducted a point for the continual headbutts but still managed to win on the scorecards in a 95-94 unanimous decision that was met with boos from the fans, despite the post-fight statistics showing Serrano lead in punches 324-217 and power punches 287-208. Serrano claimed in the post-fight interview that headbutts were intentional and should have lost Taylor the match, with her trainer stepping in and saying that there would only be a rematch if there was a better referee.
The night’s final fight brought the energy of the stadium back down to a lull. At first, Tyson came out swinging and landed some heavy blows that were reminiscent of the Tyson who became boxing’s youngest heavyweight champion. But his momentum soon drained, and by the end of the second round of the eight-round debacle, there seemed to be no fight left in Iron Mike. He started moving around less and his age eventually seemed to catch up with him. Paul continued to land blows on Tyson but seemed to not want to get too close to him for the majority of the night. He managed to land a combo in the third round that shook Tyson, but he didn’t continue pushing. It became clear to booing fans that the social media star was showing mercy to the once legend. In the final 10 seconds of the match, Paul bowed to Tyson. In the post-fight interview, Tyson claimed he wasn’t done yet and singled out Logan Paul, who was standing in the ring after the fight in support of his brother, as a potential next fight for him. Though Tyson and Paul knew how to sell the fight, the matchup eventually resulted in a historical snoozefest.
