Count Peyton Manning among those who felt they wasted their time Friday night watching Jake Paul and Mike Tyson box.
The NFL Hall of Famer took a shot at Friday’s snoozefest in which Paul defeated the former heavyweight champion at AT&T Stadium.
Manning levied his criticism during the “Manningcast” while a mini-scuffle broke out in the first quarter of the Texans’ 34-10 road win over the Cowboys in the same venue that hosted the Netflix fight.
“We got a little action going out here, Eli. We got a three-ring circus here,” Bill Belichick said while the Texans led, 7-0. “They just had one down there on Friday night, right? It’s a little fight going on here.”
Manning responded: “I think this one was better than the one Friday night.”
There has been plenty of criticism of Friday’s bout that did not meet expecations.
While some hoped — and plenty of bettors seemed to believe this would be the case — that Tyson could turn back the clock against the cocky YouTuber-turned-boxer, the fight instead played out as one would expect when a 58-year-old who hasn’t fought a sanctioned fight in 19 years faces an active 27-year-old.
Tyson landed a few punches in the first round, but he eventually stopped attacking and Paul took advantage.The younger fighter seemingly entered cruise control in the later rounds.
Paul even said he took his foot off the gas while the fight progressed.
“Definitely a bit,” he said. “I wanted to give the fans a show but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
Even “Saturday Night Live” mocked the fight for its uncompetitive nature.
“Last night, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson teamed up to defeat everyone watching,” Colin Jost said during the “Weekend Update” sketch.
Ultimately, Paul, Tyson and Netflix got the last laugh with a record amount of viewers turning in to watch the fight — although many encountered streaming issues.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
