Friday night's fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will go down as a battle of the old men, as young YouTuber Paul overcame his veteran opponent to earn a unanimous decision victory.
Tyson, 58, looked very agile in the early going, catching his younger opponent off guard with his signature head movements and left hook. However, as the third round began, Tyson's legs became weaker and his head movement slowed, leaving him a sitting target for Paul's head shots.
Tyson shocked many analysts by fighting through eight two-minute rounds.
Paul wobbled Tyson and caused him to lose his balance several times, but Tyson never looked like he was in danger of being knocked out. However, Paul also appeared to neglect to take advantage of several opportunities to punish Tyson.
In the final moments, Paul bowed to Tyson before the final bell, paying tribute to his legendary opponent.
The judges scored the fight 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73 for Paul.
Some people may forget this battle, but far fewer will forget how difficult it was to broadcast. Viewers were experiencing excessive buffering throughout the match. Sometimes the screen was just blurry due to technical issues, and other times the screen was so cluttered that it was hard to tell what was going on.
The battle was the culmination of a nearly two-year process. Tyson and Paul were originally scheduled to fight on July 20th at AT&T Stadium. However, that fight date was postponed because Tyson was having ulcer-related issues.
With this loss, Tyson improved to 50 wins and 7 losses, while Paul improved to 11 wins and 1 loss.
