By Keith Idek
ARLINGTON, Texas – Jack Paul publicly admitted Friday night to taking Mike Tyson into the final stretch of their eight-round heavyweight fight.
A diligent YouTube reporter informed the easily victorious Paul during his post-fight press conference that former two-division champion Andre Ward had informed him that Paul had “raised” the legendary Tyson when it was not clear that Paul had The 58-year-old rival can do that. Take on a much younger, fresher fighter 19 years after Tyson’s last professional bout. Ward was part of the Netflix commentary team at AT&T Stadium and apparently didn’t want to make that kind of accusation without solid evidence.
Paul provided all the evidence Ward would need.
“Yeah, I mean a little bit, yeah,” Paul said when asked about taking it easy on a weakened Tyson. “There was a point where, you know, I was just like, ‘Well, he’s not really engaged. And so, I don’t know if he’s tired or whatever.’ And I could just tell that she was looking a little older.
“And I just have so much respect for him, and that there’s nothing like violence, war between us — like after he slapped me. [at their weigh-in Thursday night] I wanted to, you know, be aggressive and take him down, get him out and all that stuff. But as the rounds went on he also got away.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 15: (LR) Jack Paul and Mike Tyson fight during Live on Netflix: Jack Paul vs. Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium on November 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Albelo/Getty Images for Netflix © 2024)
A tired, hesitant Tyson essentially stopped throwing punches by the third round of an official fight that drew worldwide criticism for their huge age difference and Tyson’s announcement in June 2005. It was said that he never wanted to box again. Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) won by large margins on all three scorecards – 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73 – over an unforgiving Tyson (50-7, 44 KOs, 2 NC). who was a beloved former heavyweight. The champion admitted that he entered the ring with a right leg injury that required him to wear a protective sleeve.
While Paul Tyson received a lot of criticism from media outlets, medical experts and fans who were concerned for Tyson’s safety, a crowd of over 72,000 at the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys headlined seven bouts of his extraordinary spectacle. The card was collected for viewing. According to Nikisa Badarian, Paul’s partner at MVP Promotions, the crowd generated nearly $18.1 million in ticket sales, a U.S. record for any boxing match outside of Nevada.
Paul and Badarian added that more viewers watched his fight with Tyson on Netflix than watched “The Super Bowl” live. He said he would release viewership figures in due course with Netflix.
Paul noted 120 million viewers shortly after his points win. Netflix, which charged subscribers no extra to watch the four fights on the Paul Tyson card, has about 283 million subscribers in more than 190 countries.
Buffering issues led to worldwide complaints during the undercard, but were apparently fixed by the time Tyson and Paul entered the ring around midnight ET in the US (5pm GMT in the UK). If millions of viewers thought Paul had to back down, they were right, according to the self-proclaimed influencer.
“Sure. Definitely a little,” Paul said. “You know, I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt anybody who didn’t need to be hurt.”
