Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson: This is how the boxing spectacle went

Jake Paul is driven at walking pace on a green lowrider to the sold-out AT&T Stadium. Phil Colins is on. “I can feel it coming in the air tonight.” He is dressed in a silver sequin jacket. In contrast, Mike Tyson seems almost humble as he walks in, wearing his black shirt. On his own two feet. Maybe you didn’t have enough change for a limo?

Mike Tyson says right at the beginning of the three-part Netflix documentary about the boxing match that he has stopped smoking grass and is no longer taking magic mushrooms in order to prepare for the eight rounds in the ring. If that’s not devotion. The “baddest man on earth” hasn’t fought for almost 20 years. Why is he changing that now? No idea. He doesn’t seem to really know that either.

For example, in the documentary he said: “If I win, I will become immortal.” However, he told a children’s reporter that he couldn’t do anything with the concept of “legacy”. “I’m going to die, then it’s over.” And: “We are dust, we are nothing, our ‘legacy’ means nothing.” Yes, he doesn’t even want to be remembered when he’s dead. The child reporter’s eyes widened.

In any case, they now face each other on this November 15th. Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. A 27 year old versus a 58 year old. In fact, they have been facing each other almost non-stop for the past week. Sometimes on a skyscraper roof, sometimes with clothes, sometimes in panties. Tyson took a swing and Jake Paul hit one. “The problem child”, as he likes to call himself, stepped on Iron Mike’s foot, which may have turned the blow into a kind of “educational lesson”. Although Tyson doesn’t actually seem like he has an educational mission. Paul then shouts into the microphone: “It’s personal now, he must die.”

72,300 spectators gathered at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The tickets alone are said to have brought in $60 million. The fight is the first boxing event to air live on Netflix. Money that Jake Paul put at least some of it directly into his outfit: his diamond-encrusted panties are said to have cost several million and, according to his own statements, are the most expensive ones ever worn in the ring. To take Iron-Mike’s age into account, the two fight with larger and more thickly padded gloves than usual and the rounds only last two minutes instead of three.

The fight begins. Paul hops from one leg to the other, Tyson wobbles behind. Then the stream hangs. You keep flying out of the broadcast and the picture becomes grim. It gives you the feeling of being a time traveler and watching one of Tyson’s legendary fights from the 80s. But that’s mainly because you can’t see anything and can imagine everything. At least it gives you the opportunity for a few thoughts.

Given all the superlatives that this evening brings, it is expected that some grumpy people have already reported themselves. It’s not about the sport at all, they say. Simply because Jake Paul was originally a YouTuber, because he has millions of followers on his social media accounts, and because he is not a classic boxer. For example, when he faced mediocre boxer Tommy Fury in 2023, he lost on points. So that’s true. On the other hand, Jake “El Gallo” Paul has achieved ten wins in his eleven fights. Eight of them by knockouts.

But actually it couldn’t be more classic than this evening. The penis-clad boxing legend steps into the ring against the young, crazy challenger. If that isn’t the stuff of a classic American story.

Especially since the two fighters are so exaggerated, as if they came from a cartoon. There is Mike Tyson, the man who won 44 of his fights by knockout, who lived with a lion, who lived with a tiger, who breeds pigeons and served three years in prison for rape. And there is Jake Paul, who strangely occasionally styles his hair into a rooster, for which he sticks a bird’s head on himself, who is a so-called internet phenomenon, who describes himself as a philanthropist, but who has been accused by some women of sexual assault and who – to put it mildly – is a Corona – is a skeptic.

Whenever the stream works briefly, the moderators say things like: “I don’t like Tyson’s footwork at all.” Or: “He is a grown man, he makes his own decisions and knows the consequences that such a fight can have.” Which sounds a bit worrying given that the fight was originally scheduled for July but had to be postponed because Tyson suffered a bout of weakness and started bleeding from a stomach ulcer. And then you see Tyson shuffling around the ring like a 58-year-old shuffles. Compared to the young boy Paul, it seems more mechanical. Paul beats up Tyson, who can only counteract his cool look, which frankly only owes his coolness to his facial tattoo. “Looking at the statistics makes you sad,” says one of the moderators. But let’s be honest: what expectations do you have to have going into the fight with in order to fall into sadness?

In the end, to no one’s surprise, Jake Paul wins the fight.

But not only. Because the way the two hug each other in the ring after eight rounds is, above all, touching. Especially when you consider the strange power struggles you have seen between younger and older men over the years. Even today there was a fear that Tyson would use a coal excavator to carry out his life’s work because he didn’t want to accept that his time was over. But he didn’t. Isn’t that a nice picture of how respectful you can be with one another, even after 16 minutes of hitting each other’s battered faces?

Maybe the sentences Mike Tyson said to the child reporter weren’t as disturbing in the end as they sounded at first. Maybe someone really understood something. It’s okay when something ends and something new begins. And with that, Iron-Mike would have fulfilled a small educational mission.

Somehow you hope that some men will learn something here.