Jake Paul has hit back at critics of his controversial fight with Mike Tyson, pointing to the huge number of households that tuned in—peaking at 65 million.
The 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer defeated the 58-year-old boxing legend at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend at an event that was livestreamed on Netflix, as the first-ever of its kind on the platform.
Netflix has since reported that 60 million households watched the fight, peaking at 35 million concurrent streams.
Paul shared this on his X, formerly Twitter, profile and wrote: “Biggest since cable. Mic drop on you haters. Oh and we had 50M households watching Amanda & Katie. Grateful.”
He was referring to the shared main event of the night, when Katie Taylor beat Amanda Serrano, retaining her undisputed light-welterweight title on points.
There has been some controversy surrounding the fight, namely over Tyson’s age.
Former professional heavyweight Nicola Adams said on X: “Let’s be real a young Mike Tyson would’ve absolutely annihilated Jake Paul tonight, I wanted to see Mike Tyson doing what he does, but he is 58 years old, in exceptional shape, but just not good enough to fight these young up and comers now.”
Let’s be real a young Mike Tyson would’ve absolutely annihilated Jake Paul tonight, I wanted to see Mike Tyson doing what he does but he is 58 years old in exceptional shape but just not good enough to fight these young up and comers now. pic.twitter.com/E1ZGjIULYc
— Nicola Adams (@NicolaAdamsOBE) November 16, 2024
Terence Crawford, who has held multiple world boxing titles in four different weight classes, said: “I love Mike Tyson, but they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash, to train that long and only throw 97 punches the whole fight is crazy. I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt out there.”
Meanwhile, former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who shocked the world when he knocked Tyson Fury to the floor in a fight last year (although Fury ultimately won with a split-decision), said he would “give Jake Paul two or three slaps.”
Paul responded to him, writing: “Clout chasing doesn’t suit you legend. Maybe Jon Jones (who took the UFC belt from Ngannou) is the better heavyweight after all.”
Netflix, which also faced criticism for having buffering issues, said another record that the Paul vs. Tyson fight broke was surpassing $18 million—double the previous Texas gate record for combat sports in both boxing and MMA, topping Canelo Álvarez’s figure of $9 million.
The event also made waves on the internet, with #PaulTyson the number one trending topic worldwide on X on Friday and #Serrano at number two in the U.S., Brazil, Spain and Canada.
Netflix had spent months building up the fight, which was the platform’s first attempt at livestreaming a combat sports event.
While there was lots of hype in the buildup to the fight, the event, which saw eight rounds fought, seemingly did not live up to people’s expectations, with the crowd eventually booing.
Tyson threw just 97 punches and landed 18 of them throughout the fight, while Paul threw 278 and landed 78.
On Saturday, Tyson wrote on X: “This is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in ring one last time.
“I almost died in June. Had eight blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25 pounds in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish eight rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you.”
More thsan 70,000 fight fans attended the match, according to USA Today.
Newsweek contacted teams for Tyson and Paul via email outside of normal working hours for comment.
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