Did Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson? How the Netflix battle ended

On By Littum

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Both men stayed on their feet.

Jake Paul, a 27-year-old social media personality who has been chasing boxing fame for several years, toppled a legend, handing 58-year-old Mike Tyson a loss in his first pro fight in nearly 20 years.

The fight went the distance, with Paul winning in the decision.

Here’s what happened.

Mike Tyson knocks out/loses to Jake Paul

The Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight was set for eight, two-minute rounds, concluding the first ever live boxing event on Netflix.

The winner needed all these rounds.

The first round featured a few quick, heavy punches from both men and a warning to Tyson to keep his punches above the belt.

In the second round, Paul relied on body shots and quick takedowns to stay away from Tyson’s signature bombs.

In the third, Tyson absorbed several heavy blows from Paul and looked wobbly but held in the center of the ring.

His corner warned Tyson to “breathe and relax” during the break ahead of the fourth round and implored him to throw more punches.

In the fourth, Tyson kept his position in the center of the ring and seemed to have a little more energy, dodging more shots and countering with the occasional hook.

At halftime, Paul’s corner told him he was “controlling everything.”

In the fifth, Paul kept Tyson moving around the ring, feeding the aging champion with a flurry of left hooks.

Both men showed some fatigue heading into their corners ahead of the final three rounds.

As he had done in the previous five rounds, Paul went right by Tyson at the sixth bell, jumping and bumping the former undisputed heavyweight champion.

The seventh round opened with a flurry of punches from Tyson and Paul, both men trading hooks and jabs in center ring before settling into a game of strategy. Paul a lot of the two-minute stanza is looking around Tyson’s guard, looking for openings.

The break saw Tyson cowering in his corner and his team urging him to get active in the final round.

The final round mirrored the action of the first two minutes, with more punches and movement from Tyson and effective chase-and-chop jabs from Paul.

Neither man ever went down, and neither Tyson nor Paul ever seemed truly hurt or in danger during the 16-minute fight.

Both men hugged in the middle as the final bell rang.

Paul added an 11th win to his budding career. Tyson capped off an impressive Hall of Fame career with a solid but fruitless effort.

Tyson has half a dozen knockouts in less than a minute.

But he’s also had a few late-round put-downs, winning a handful of fights by KO or TKO after the third round.

He has also suffered knock-outs in four of his six pro losses, including his stunning defeat to Buster Douglas in 1990, which ended his championship reign.

Paul has one put-down in his pro career, putting down Mike Perry in the sixth round earlier this year for a technical knockout victory.

His only loss, to Tommy Fury early last year, was by split decision.

Was the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight real?

The Jake Paul – Mike Tyson fight was sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and was billed as a real fight.

But ESPN noted that the rules for the fight were different from what boxing fans were used to.

Both Paul and Tyson wore 14-ounce gloves instead of the traditional 10-ounce gloves, and the rounds were two minutes long instead of the usual three minutes; and the fight was scheduled to go eight rounds, and not the usual 10 or 12.

Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist who reports on popular issues in the Mid-Atlantic area.