Mike Tyson has rejected Evander Holyfield’s offer for a third fight, instead claiming their enduring friendship constitutes a “true” trilogy. Tyson (58) recently returned to the ring to fight an eight-round fight with 27-year-old Internet star Jake Paul on Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Tyson was defeated by decision after going the entire distance with Paul, in what critics called a needy performance. During the event that marked Netflix’s entry into the boxing scene, Holyfield was a commentator.

After the fight, Holyfield expressed his desire to face Tyson again by sharing a amusing mock-up poster on social media. However, Tyson poured icy water on this idea. “I love you, brother, but the trilogy [fight] is our friendship,” wrote “Iron Mike” in an forthright response to Holyfield.

Their first meeting took place in 1996 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where they competed for the WBA world heavyweight championship. They were both icons of world sport at the time.

Although Tyson was heavily favored at odds of five to one, Holyfield won with a dramatic knockout in the 11th round. Their high-profile rematch, which took place in 1997, also at the MGM Grand, went down in history as “The Bite Fight” after Tyson was disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield’s ear.

Tyson ended his career after further defeats to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride in 2004 and 2005, only to return in 2020 for an exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr, who did not count towards either player’s record. Jake Paul appeared on the undercard against Nate Robinson, delivering a spectacular knockout.

Four years later, Tyson and Paul faced off in front of a huge worldwide audience. According to event organizer Most Valuable Promotions, the Tyson vs. Paul main event peaked with 65 million concurrent households watching on Netflix.

Additionally, the event at Dallas Cowboys Stadium was attended by approximately 70,000 spectators, generating ticket sales of £14 million ($18 million) – double the previous Texas gate record for a combat sports competition set by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. when he defeated Billy Joe Saunders. It is unclear whether Tyson will return to the ring. However, Paul has previously expressed his ambitions to challenge Canelo and even compete in MMA.

Holyfield (62) had his last professional fight in 2011 at the age of 48, although his last exhibition fight was in 2021. In 2015, he also fought former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a charity event.

He is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, holding the unified WBA, WBC and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, and the WBA title for the third time from 1996 to 1999; IBF title for the third time from 1997 to 1999 and WBA title for the fourth time from 2000 to 2001.

In addition to consecutive victories over Tyson, Holyfield also defeated George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Buster Douglas – months after Douglas ended Tyson’s undefeated streak in 1990.

Former world champion Mike Tyson is ranked 309th in the BoxRec heavyweight rankings after his recent points defeat to influential boxer Jake Paul. Iron Mike, 58, defied his age in his first professional fight since losing to Kevin McBride in 2005.

The marquee fight between Tyson and Paul was available to watch worldwide on Netflix. However, boxing icon Tyson found it complex to compete with The Problem Child considering their 31-year age difference. Avoiding defeat by knockout, Tyson left Arlington, Texas with a points defeat, but he took positives from his return to the ring.

After the fight, Tyson took to social media to say: “It’s one of those situations where you lost but you still won. I’m grateful for last night. I don’t regret entering the ring for the last time. I almost died in June. I had 8 blood transfusions. I lost half my blood and 25 pounds in the hospital and had to fight to get better to fight, so I won. My kids saw me go head to head and finish 8 innings with a talented fighter half my age, packed Dallas Cowboy Stadium is an experience no one could ask for. Thank you.

Following this, Tyson finished 309th in the latest BoxRec heavyweight rankings, an astonishing 183 places behind relative newcomer Paul. The legendary figure is only slightly ahead of Terrell Jamal Woods, who has won one of his last 15 fights and has a record of 29-62. Even lesser-known boxers like Peter “The Problem” Naylor rank significantly above Tyson.

In contrast, Paul dropped to 126th in the world after his decisive victory in Texas. Reflecting on the fight and whether he went effortless on Tyson in the later rounds, Paul stated: “Yeah, definitely, definitely a little bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to [to hurt him]. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t need to be hurt.

While the fight didn’t produce the fireworks many expected, some spectators were so disappointed that they left AT&T Stadium before the decision was announced. However, the fallout was not suppressed.

In delicate of his performance, Paul received a call from none other than undisputed delicate heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.

“@jakepaul, what can you do in the ring against the current undisputed champion?” – Beterbiev asked in an Instagram post. “Just know that I’m always open to any suggestions.”

On Saturday, it was revealed that the main event on Netflix was watched by more than 60 million households, leading to several outages for the streaming platform. Meanwhile, the fight’s purse exceeded $18 million, doubling the previous Texas record for combat sports in boxing and MMA and breaking Canelo Alvarez’s record of $9 million.

Jake Paul’s farcical victory over Mike Tyson made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons. Wydarzenie było transmitowane na żywo dla wielomilionowej publiczności, a tylko nieliczni byli zadowoleni z tego, co zobaczyli podczas trudnej dla boksu nocy.

Anyone who had any real hope for Tyson to win was sanguine at best and downright naive at worst. Nigdy nie miałby szans w starciu z mężczyzną o połowę młodszym od niego i będącym w życiowej formie, niezależnie od umiejętności bokserskich.

It always went one way, with Iron Mike doing nothing of note beyond a few punches early in the opening round. In total, he only landed 97 punches, and Paul kept circling him despite the fact that virtually no one considered him a worthy opponent.

Jeszcze przed wydarzeniem krążyły plotki, że zostanie ono napisane po ukazaniu się w mediach społecznościowych niepotwierdzonego dokumentu. He claimed to detail how events unfolded round by round, predicting Paul would win by knockout.

Ultimately, it was a different result, with the YouTube star taking the points victory after eight terrible rounds. The truth is that nobody could have scripted such a dull fight, which was essentially a vanity project for Paul at the expense of a living legend.

It says a lot that Tyson Paul’s punch at the weigh-in was the funniest moment of the fight week. Było to ogromne rozczarowanie dla każdego, kto liczył na obejrzenie porządnego złomu, ale ci, którzy widzieli przez fasadę, i tak nie spodziewali się wiele.

Tony Bellew, który wściekł się na Paula podczas rozmowy z Express Sport przed walką, wyraził się w świetny sposób w mediach społecznościowych. He suggested that people should resist the temptation to watch these events because it is the public interest that drives them.

Jednak w miarę jak walka osiągnęła szczytową oglądalność w serwisie Netflix wynoszącą 65 milionów, wydaje się, że w dającej się przewidzieć przyszłości tym absurdalnym spektaklom nie widać końca. A gloomy time for the sport of boxing, indeed.