Last Friday we got to witness boxing legend Mike Tyson climb into the ring for the first time in nineteen years. Naturally, the hype was everywhere; arena seats were sold out, celebrities attended, and families clambered onto their couches to watch the event at home.  Mike Tyson, now 58, would be facing 27 year-old Jake Paul, who is thought to be in his prime, in a classic match.  Tensions had been rising before the fight, with Jake Paul gifting Mike Tyson a pigeon as an homage to the story of how the death of Mike Tyson’s pigeon is what led to him learning to box, riling Tyson up, and Mike slapping Jake Paul at the weigh-ins after Jake supposedly stepped on his toe.  Anticipation was bubbling, but when the fight ended, everyone was left underwhelmed, confused, even a little angry.  With Jake Paul ending up winning by a unanimous decision, the fight had gained an image of a boring, gray bout that wasn’t very interesting.  With Mike Tyson, a boxing legend, and Jake Paul, an energetic young boxer, being the ones fighting, it begs the question; why was the fight so underwhelming?

One of the main reasons viewers and analysts have been speculating is that the fight was rigged, and the two boxers had agreed to go easy on each other. After conducting a poll among Cresskill students, 55% of students agreed that the fight was most likely rigged, as they thought it was suspicious how there were multiple instances where Jake would seem to whisper something to Mike after him playing more aggressively, prompting him to backoff and seemingly hold himself back, allowing Jake to get some easy hits in. Chris Chung explains how “Based on Mike’s training videos, it seemed as if he wasn’t even trying in this fight.”  This is a common consensus among the student body, with many students looking to Mike Tyson’s training footage as evidence that the fight was rigged, due to how much his slow, distanced fighting in the match stood in stark contrast to the fast, intense style in his training videos, suggesting that he was holding himself back, leading to an insincere fight where neither of the fighters were really going 100%.  Jake Paul too has come out and explained how “”I wanted to give the fans a show but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt”, referencing how he didn’t knock out Mike and didn’t really exert much effort on him.  

However, a key factor to consider is Tyson’s age.  Mike Tyson was 58 years old at the time of the fight, Mike was well past his prime, leading to a lack of power and stamina, while Jake Paul was 27, as stated before, being in his athletic prime.  Naturally, Mike’s age slowed him down considerably, leading to him not being able to get in close to Jake for his signature in-fighting style, where he would approach the opponent and follow with a series of vicious hooks, usually knocking people out in one go, and instead opting for a rather bland out fighting style.  Mike got a lot of slander after his performance in the fight, prompting him to explain how he had received 8 blood transfusions after losing half his blood, emphasizing how he had “Almost died”, and for him, just the fact that he was able to get in shape enough to be able to get in the ring with Jake for 8 rounds was a win in his book.  

All in all, the widespread disdain of the highly advertised and anticipated fight came from a variety of reasons, but rather then the fight being rigged as some viewers have suggested, the more likely cause is that Mike’s age has begun to catch up to him, leading to a much more uninteresting fight due to his slowness, especially for the people that remember seeing clips of Mike Tyson in his prime being fast and dangerous, who are now comparing that version to this old and out of prime version, a rather unfair comparison.  What is certain, however, is that it was great to see “Iron” Mike Tyson back in the ring one last time, providing a sense of closure for many as the book closes once and for all on Kid Dynamite’s illustrious boxing career.