In a quite a surreal moment in the history of boxing, YouTuber Jake Paul beat a 58-year old Mike Tyson in front of 70,000 people at the AT&T Stadium and a self-alleged 'record' Netflix audience at home.
Paul, who is over 30 years Tyson's junior, won via unanimous decision in a much lambasted contest as the pair failed to put on a spectacle worthy of following up the classic that was Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano 2.
The two women put on a clinic, up there with their Madison Square Garden main event in 2022 and much like that occasion, Taylor's win was met with a lot of controversy from Serrano's corner and her legion of fans. Nonetheless the bout gave Tyson and Paul a tall order to follow and they failed to live up to the billing.
Where the pair didn't fail though was hyping up this bout in the weeks beforehand. Love him or hate him, one thing you can't deny about Jake Paul is that he's great at selling fights. Every fight he's had has done good numbers and one way he does it is his McGregor-like press conferences.
It was much of the same business on Thursday when Paul marched around the stage in an attempt to make a bet with each person who picked Mike Tyson to beat him, including shaking hands with Katie Taylor and putting his reported $40 million purse on the line.
‼️ Jake Paul furiously challenges Katie Taylor, Mario Barrios and Bruce 'Shu Shu' Carrington to bets after they predict Mike Tyson will win. Jake tells 'Shu Shu': “The time I spend taking a s*** is how much you make in your whole life. Shut the f*** up.”
[🎥 @MostVPromotions] pic.twitter.com/Ap2n0tiivp
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) November 14, 2024
It wasn't the first wager Jake Paul had made with Katie Taylor, with the YouTuber also putting up $1 million on Serrano to beat Taylor in their first bout, which Taylor won.
Speaking in his press conference after beating Tyson, Jake Paul was quick to deny the bet being made official despite his assertions in the pre-fight press conference that 'contracts will be sent.'
We never made it official, I think it was all in light of entertainment and trying to make something fun, selling fights.
Selling fights is something Paul knows all about as ion the same press conference he claims that the number of viewers for this clash smashed any previous record for a sporting event on a streaming platform.
