Boxing has always been part sport, part spectacle—and lately, the latter seems to be throwing sharper jabs than ever. With legends returning from retirement, influencers lacing up gloves, and pay-per-view numbers shattering ceilings, purists often find themselves squaring off with mainstream fans in a bout of ideology. But love it or loathe it, one thing’s certain: when Mike Tyson and Jake Paul’s exhibition bout was announced for Netflix, the internet didn’t whisper—it roared.
The unlikely matchup between a 58-year-old “Iron” Mike and the YouTuber-turned-boxer quickly snowballed into one of the most talked-about sporting events of 2025. With Netflix backing the promotion and Dallas hosting the showdown, curiosity alone was enough to glue millions of eyeballs to screens.
Yet not everyone viewed this collision of eras and egos as a win for boxing. Detractors chimed in, and one critic in particular, known on X as P8RIOT, wasn’t pulling punches. “Nobody wanted to see the Jake and Mike fight, nobody,” the user posted in a reply to Claressa Shields, Netflix, and Tyson himself. “The same goes for you and fighting someone that’s been retired since ’07. Plenty of current fighters to call out. This ain’t it.” A bold claim—and one that didn’t sit quietly in the feed.
Yeah yall did… 78 million of y’all tuned in to @netflix that night to watch. I flew to Dallas lol. We all wanted to see it https://t.co/BmzHIsj0fh
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) July 15, 2025
Enter Claressa “GWOAT” Shields, widely regarded as the most accomplished woman in boxing today. She wasn’t about to let this one slide. Hitting back with a statistic as blunt as a body shot, Shields wrote: “Yeah yall did… 78 million of y’all tuned in to @netflix that night to watch. I flew to Dallas lol. We all wanted to see it.” The two-time Olympic gold medalist and multi-division world champion wasn’t just defending the event—she was reminding fans that numbers don’t lie, even if opinions clash.
Was Jake Paul and Mike Tyson scripted?
The internet has a knack for turning any controversial event into a conspiracy, and Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was no exception. Despite Paul being declared the winner by unanimous decision, fans weren’t just debating the scorecards—they were questioning the entire fight’s legitimacy. Whispers of a leaked script went viral, sparking accusations that the match was nothing more than a staged Netflix spectacle. But amid all the online speculation, one voice offered a brutally honest counterpunch: Olympic bronze medalist Tony Jeffries.
Taking to Instagram, the former pro boxer broke down the so-called “fight script” and compared it, line by line, with what actually happened inside the ring. The alleged script claimed that Tyson would start aggressively, using his signature bob-and-weave movement in round one. Jeffries agreed, saying, “That’s exactly what was going to happen… Would Mike Tyson come out and start moving on his back foot and not bobbing and weaving his head like he always has done?” Even the part about Tyson opening with a jab seemed believable to him. “Jab is what you lead with and yes that’s the punch that every fighter throws when the fight starts,” Jeffries noted.
But while the first round matched the script, things quickly unraveled. According to the leaked document, the fight was supposed to end in round five with a Jake Paul knockout. Jeffries didn’t buy it for a second. “Obviously, [this] did not happen, so this script is full of BS,” he concluded, pointing out that there wasn’t even a single knockdown during the entire fight. If anything, that absence of drama made the fight feel too real—and, in some fans’ eyes, disappointingly dull.
Jeffries didn’t stop there. He raised a bigger question: “Do you think Mike Tyson would lose a fight to earn some more money?” His answer? A resounding no. According to the Brit, Tyson, now in his late 50s and reportedly making $20 million for the bout, had no financial reason to fake a loss. “Mike Tyson, who’s a multi-millionaire, doesn’t need any money right now whatsoever,” he said. Jeffries even flipped the narrative, asking why Jake didn’t just knock out the aging legend if the fight were real. His take? “The reason why Jake didn’t knock him out was because he couldn’t knock him out… If you know anything about boxing, what happens when you rush forward and you try and knock someone out? You leave yourself open to get countered.”
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