Tyson vs Paul Was a Disgusting Farce
The Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight last night was a disgrace to boxing with zero compelling narratives. We wrote about it anyway.

Mike Tyson, Nakisa Bidarian, and Jake Paul attend the press conference for the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight on November 13, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. (Brett Carlsen / Getty Images for Netflix)
The great stories of Mike Tyson’s fight against Jake Paul last night were the ones left untold. This might have been the story of Tyson, a convicted rapist, getting his just deserts. I am not fond of nursing grudges against people who have served their time in prison, but Tyson remains unrepentant, and even as he prepared for last night’s fight, his lawyers have been preparing for another rape lawsuit. Look past the admittedly impressive PR rehabilitation of Tyson’s brand and what you’ll eventually see is a violent criminal who deserved to get put on his back one last time.
We didn’t get that story. Neither did we get the story most viewers probably wanted: the story of Jake Paul losing his teeth to a living legend. Few of them probably knew much about Paul’s pathetic boxing career or even his ridiculous support for Donald Trump; but it is a testament to his sheer unlikability that judging on sight alone most people preferred Tyson.
To say that Paul embodies the archetypal juvenile undomesticated white American frat bro is an injustice to frat bros everywhere. Paul is the guy who shows up uninvited at a frat party, insists on talking ten decibels louder than the music, and eventually gets kicked out after hitting on someone’s girlfriend.