Mike Tyson didn’t look impressive in his unanimous decision loss to Jake Paul on Friday, but it’s apparently impressive he was in the ring at all.
The former heavyweight champion reflected on the fight via social media the next day, saying he still won overall and that he is grateful for the experience. He then revealed he nearly died five months earlier in June, requiring eight blood transfusions to replace half his blood and losing 25 pounds while hospitalized.
Tyson’s full reaction:
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 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25lbs 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 8 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.
Tyson also admitted to Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani after the fight that he entered the ring with an injury to the lower part of his right leg. He wore a protective sleeve during the fight.
The Tyson-Paul fight was initially scheduled for July 20 at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium, but a medical scare for Tyson led to it being rescheduled for November. At the time, Tyson said the issue was an ulcer flare-up and that he was advised by his doctor to lighten his training for a few weeks.
The issue was apparently more serious than previously claimed.
However Tyson recovered, it was still hard to ignore the fact that a 58-year-old was boxing a 27-year-old on Friday (at least when the stream was working). Tyson looked somewhat lively in the first couple rounds, but Paul wobbled him in the third round and never came close to threatening Paul for the rest of the fight.
Tyson didn’t have the quickness to overcome Paul’s reach advantage, receiving a steady diet of jabs and combinations across eight two-minute rounds. Per Compubox’s numbers, he landed a total of 18 punches. Experiencing a death scare less than half a year before the fight would help explain the performance, but the basic age gap had already done a good job there.
The fight still managed to draw an astounding 60 million households on Netflix.
Despite those struggles, Tyson hinted he might fight again. He playfully called out Paul’s brother Logan Paul, receiving a response of “Motherf***er I’ll kill you.” Friday was Tyson’s first officially sanctioned fight since 2005, with exhibition bouts against Corey Sanders in 2006 and Roy Jones Jr. in 2020 since then.
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