“The saddest show in boxing history”. “A parody”. “A masquerade”. As usual, but rightly so for once, the social network X was abuzz with acerbic comments last night, both during and after Youtubeur Jake Paul’s victory over Mike Tyson in Arlington (Texas, USA). Tyson, who hadn’t fought professionally since 2005, looked the part for only the first two rounds before being largely dominated by Paul, who won by unanimous decision after 8 rounds of 2 minutes.

Symbolic of this uninteresting match, the 5th round saw the two protagonists exchange only four real punches, giving the impression that Jake Paul was content with the minimum against a 58-year-old opponent quickly caught up by the age limit. But that didn’t stop him, at the end of the fight, from projecting himself into the future on… a ring. “Is this my last fight?he asked himself in the center of the arena. “I don’t know, I don’t think so. It depends on the situation”.he replied, before adding that he was already preparing for the rest of the show. “For the sequel, maybe I could take his brother.”, looking at wrestling superstar Logan Paul, standing next to Jake and retorting with a smile on his face: “You son of a bitch, I’m gonna kill you, Mike!”

What else can we learn from this evening, where the financial stakes far outweighed the sporting interest of a fight that was far too lopsided? That Mike Tyson still has an innate sense of stagecraft, even if it sometimes verges on the ridiculous. As was the case during a short television interview broadcast before his entrance into the ring, where he announced his forthcoming victory before turning on his heels and revealing his surprising outfit, which did not fail to create a buzz on the web.

Another failure of the evening was that the Netflix servers couldn’t cope with the influx of viewers, with many complaining about the quality of the broadcast and stream. This was the first live TV broadcast of a sporting event for the VOD giant, which will have to learn from its mistakes quickly as two NFL games are scheduled for the Christmas holidays. “There were 120 million people on Netflix, we bugged the site”congratulated Jake Paul.

A Youtubeur who paid tribute to his opponent in the final moments of the fight, bowing respectfully to him. A posture that was not to everyone’s taste. And to take things a step further, Jake Paul even mentioned his future in the ring too, when he mentioned the name of Canelo Alvarez, the current light-heavyweight world champion. “Canelo? I talked about him this week, he needs me, so I won’t even try to call him, he knows where the money is.”said the 27-year-old American. Not sure the Mexican will prove as harmless as the shadow of legend Tyson…