Jake Paul defeats Mike Tyson in Netflix boxing showdown

· DW

The intergenerational heavyweight boxing battle wasn't even close according to the judges.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, by unanimous decision on Saturday morning. 

The fight wasn't close on the judge's cards, with one giving the 27-year-old Paul an 80-72 edge, and the other two calling it 79-73.

Tyson, 58, connected with just 18 of 97 punches thrown while Paul threw some 278 punches and landed 78 of them.

Fight did not live up to it hype

Tyson charged at Paul right after the opening bell, landing a couple of quick punches, but he didn’t do much after that. 

While Paul became more aggressive after Tyson's quick start, his punches were often wild and ineffective. For the most part, Tyson waited for Paul to come to him, engaging only occasionally.

Yet the younger fighter was unable to land the knockout blow he had promised to deliver during Thursday's ill-tempered weigh-in, where Tyson slapped him across the face.

Boos from a crowd wanting more action at the AT&T Stadium in Texas was audible at times.

After the fight Paul called Tyson a legendImage: Julio Cortez/AP/picture alliance

After the fight Paul called Tyson, "the greatest to ever do it. He's the GOAT, he's a legend." He added, "it was really tough like I expected it to be."

Tyson, meanwhile, said he was not done with boxing. 

 "I don't know. It depends on the situation," said Tyson. Pressed on whether Friday was his last fight he added: "I don't think so."

Tyson-Paul fight streaming problems

The fight was shown on Netflix, marking the platform's biggest live sports event.

According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight

Many viewers took to social media to share their frustrations with streaming and buffering problems before and during the fight.

lo/tg (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)