The “fight of the decade” between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson did not exactly live up to the hype. While 70,000 fans looked on at AT&T Stadium and millions more watched at home on Netflix, Paul overcame a promising start from Tyson and defeated the former heavyweight champion by a unanimous decision from the fight judges.
Over the course of eight rounds, the 27-year-old Paul clearly had a leg up on the 58-year-old Tyson, taking part in his first professional fight since 2005. Tyson landed just 97 punches to Paul’s 278 — and despite Tyson’s age, many viewers registered surprise at just how old and slow Iron Mike looked. For much of the fight, it seemed as if Paul could knock out the legend any time he wanted.
Paul allegedly said the fight was rigged!
There may be a contractual or legal reason why Paul — who made $40 million from the fight — did not knock out Tyson (who made $20 million) despite having ample opportunity to do so. According to famed hip-hop DJ Whoo Kid, Paul revealed exclusively that neither combatant could hit each other too hard due to injury fears.
“Legally, they each cannot go at each other hard because if Mike hits Jake Paul, like really hit him. … He still has it. If Mike Tyson hit Jake Paul, Jake Paul would die. If he went all in. If Jake Paul would hit Mike Tyson I think because of Mike Tyson’s age, he would kill Mike Tyson. So the rules were that they’ve got to chill. That’s what I heard. They both had to chill,” Whoo Kid said via TikTok. “You can tell when (Tyson) goes one-two and then he stops because he would kill him. It would be over.”
Before the fight, generative AI revealed that one of the bout’s most likely outcomes was a serious injury, either to Paul or to Tyson. Due to Tyson’s age and the fact that he suffered a medical emergency in May, much analysis of the bout centered on Tyson’s viability as a fighter at 58 years old. And despite pledging to knock out Tyson, Paul himself admitted after the fight that he was going easy on him, as he had made clear that he was the superior boxer on the night.
Another reason that no one wanted an ugly end to the bout is that sportsbooks took in millions upon millions of dollars in bets placed beforehand. The rapper Drake bet more than $350,000 on Tyson, and a quick end to the night in Arlington, Texas would have led to a lot of heartache and anger of the money lost.
Though DJ Whoo Kid’s contention is controversial, it is probably correct — and it contributed to what many have called a “snoozer” of a fight.
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