It wasn’t just Jake Paul hitting 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday night in Texas. It was reality.
‘I cut it off because I couldn’t watch anymore,’ NBA legend Magic Johnson wrote as the former heavyweight champion was losing a unanimous decision on Netflix. ‘It’s sad to see Mike Tyson like this.’
YouTuber-turned-boxer KSI went so far as to describe the ‘sad’ fight as ‘elder abuse,’ which is a dramatic turnaround for an event that had been widely anticipated around the world.
Once thrilled to watch a boxing legend face a cocky Gen Z upstart 31 years Tyson’s junior, fans were ultimately left dismayed to see the self-proclaimed ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ succumb to an influencer he would have easily beaten in his prime.
Yes, Tyson did go the distance on Friday, but the fight was only scheduled for eight rounds, which were trimmed to two minutes each from the usual three.
Mike Tyson landed only 18 punches on Friday night in Texas but managed to go the distance
As a result, Tyson was only in action for 16 minutes on Friday. But to those watching him lumber around the ring with a brace on his right knee, it felt much longer. At one point, ‘he’s 58’ began trending on X in reference to Iron Mike’s age.
Undisputed super welterweight champion Terence Crawford didn’t pull any punches when discussing the fight online.
‘I love Mike Tyson, but they giving him too much credit,’ Crawford wrote. ‘He looked like trash, to train that long and only throw 97 punches the whole fight is crazy. I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt out there.’
Sportswriter Callum Boyle agreed.
‘Sad to watch as a boxing fan,’ Boyle wrote. ‘Mike Tyson’s legacy should remain in the past and not be tarnished by whatever this is supposed to be. Still can’t take Jake Paul seriously until I see him fight a legitimate boxer in the prime of their career.’
There were some who were impressed with Tyson’s performance in spite of everything. For instance, British talk show host Piers Morgan wrote that Tyson still has ‘the heart of a lion.’
Magic Johnson couldn’t believe how Mike Tyson performed on Friday in Texas
KSI described Friday’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson bout as ‘elderly abuse’
Jake Paul hits Tyson with a strong left during their heavyweight bout on Friday night
Skip Bayless admitted he was surprised Tyson is ‘still able to throw punches,’ but conceded that Iron Mike ‘looked pretty pathetic.’
The stats only confirmed what everyone already knew: Tyson landed just 18 of 97 punches, with only four of those shots connecting with Paul’s torso.
Of course, this fight was delayed once after Tyson had an ulcer flareup aboard a cross-country fight, so maybe the public should have expected the kind of spectacle that took place at AT&T Stadium on Friday.
But curiously, bettors still believed in Tyson, with 85 percent of wagers at FanDuel being placed on boxing’s elder statesman.
For instance, Drake put $355,000 on Tyson to win only to find out with the rest of the world that the Brooklyn native was decades past his prime, to it conservatively.
But despite the hype and the hope, a 58-year-old Tyson simply could not beat father time.
‘This is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen,’ one critic added. ‘Tyson can barely walk.’
