After Jake Paul beat boxing legend Mike Tyson by unanimous decision in a surprise fight in Texas, fans online began launching conspiracy theories that the fight was possibly rigged. Some believe there was a specific moment in the fight that exposed the foul play.
In the fight that took place in Texas on Friday, Jake Paul, 27, appeared to be in control throughout the fight against Mike Tyson, 58. Despite Paul’s superiority, he stated after the fight that he chose not to finish the fight by knockout. These statements raised doubts on social media, as fans began spreading conspiracy theories about the validity of the fight.
A fan on X (formerly Twitter) posted a clip from the fight that appears to show Mike Tyson preparing to hit Jake Paul with a powerful punch to his unprotected face. However, Tyson suddenly retracts his fist before he can land the punch. “Just to make sure no one has any doubts,” the fan captioned the video.
The fight received a lot of criticism due to the large age gap between the fighters, with Tyson being 58 years old compared to Paul who is 27. However, despite this, Jake Paul is said to have earned $40 million from the fight, while Tyson earned around $20 million.
Meanwhile, the live stream of the match on Netflix was the subject of much criticism. Many viewers experienced quality issues, including image distortion, lag, and unstable audio. According to Down Detector, a platform that tracks online outages, more than 80,000 users were affected by technical issues during the stream at 10:35 p.m. New York time.
Following widespread criticism of the stream, Netflix issued a statement about the technical issues. “The unprecedented scale of the event created a number of technical challenges, which the team was able to address admirably by prioritizing stream stability for as many viewers as possible,” said Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s chief technology officer. “Many of you will have seen the criticism in the press and on social media about the quality issues,” Stone said in her statement.
Beyond the controversy over match fixing or technical issues, the question remains: Was this fight real or was it just a show for the spectators? In the end, with all the criticism and problems, the match remains the talk of the town in the media and among fans.
Although Jake Paul officially defeated Mike Tyson in the Texas fight, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the validity of the fight. Whether the conspiracy theories are true or not, this clash between the legend and the YouTuber has caused a lot of controversy and raised questions about the future of matches like this in the world of sports.