ARLINGTON, Texas — The boos from a crowd wanting more action were growing again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves before the final bell, and bowed toward 58-year-old Mike Tyson.

Paying homage to one of the biggest names in boxing history didn’t do much for the fans that filled the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys on Friday night.

Paul won an eight-round unanimous decision over Tyson as the hits didn’t match the hype in a fight between the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer and the former heavyweight champion in his first sanctioned pro bout in almost 20 years.

All the hate from the pre-fight buildup was gone, replaced by boos from bewildered fans hoping for more from a fight that drew plenty of questions about its legitimacy long beforehand.

The fight wasn’t close on the judge’s cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 edge and the other two calling it 79-73.

“Let’s give it up for Mike,” Paul said in the ring, not getting much response from a crowd that started filing out before the decision was announced. “He’s the greatest to ever do it. I look up to him. I’m inspired by him.”

Tyson came after Paul immediately after the opening bell and landed a couple of quick punches but didn’t try much else the rest of the way.

Even fewer rounds than the normal 10 or 12 and two-minute rounds instead of three, along with heavier gloves designed to lessen the power of punches, couldn’t do much to generate action.

Paul was more aggressive after the quick burst from Tyson in the opening seconds, but the punching wasn’t very efficient. There were quite a few wild swings and misses.

“I was trying to hurt him a little bit,” said Paul, who improved to 11-1. “I was scared he was going to hurt me. I was trying to hurt him. I did my best. I did my best.”

Tyson mostly sat back and waited for Paul to come to him, with a few exceptions. It was quite the contrast to the co-main event, another slugfest between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in which Taylor kept her undisputed super lightweight championship with another disputed decision.

Paul said he eased up starting about the third round because he thought Tyson was tired and vulnerable.

“I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt somebody that didn’t need to be hurt,” Paul said.

It was the first sanctioned fight since 2005 for Tyson, who fought Roy Jones Jr. in a much more entertaining exhibition in 2020. Paul started fighting a little more than four years ago.

“I didn’t prove nothing to anybody, only to myself,” Tyson said when asked what it meant to complete the fight. “I’m not one of those guys that looks to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”

The fight was originally scheduled for July 20 but had to be postponed when Tyson was treated for a stomach ulcer after falling ill on a flight. His record is now 50-7 with 44 knockouts.

Tyson slapped Paul on the face during the weigh-in a night before the fight, and they traded insults in several of the hype events, before and after the postponement.

The hate was long gone by the end of the anticlimactic fight.

“I have so much respect for him,” Paul said. “That violence, war thing between us, like after he slapped me, I wanted to be aggressive and take him down and knock him out and all that stuff. That kind of went away as the rounds went on.”

The fight set a Texas record for combat sports with a gate of nearly $18 million, according to organizers, and Netflix had problems with the feed in the streaming platform’s first live combat sports event. Netflix has more than 280 million subscribers globally.

“This is the biggest event,” Paul said. “Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”

Among the celebrities were basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and former NFL star Rob Gronkowski, along with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, two foes with Tyson’s heyday, greeted him in his locker room before the fight.

Tyson infamously bit Holyfield on the ear in a 1997 bout, and appeared to have one of his gloves in his mouth several times during the Paul bout. He was asked if he had problem with his mouthpiece.

“I have a habit of biting my gloves,” Tyson said. “I have a biting fixation.”

“I’ve heard about that,” the interview responded.

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Mario Barrios retained the WBC welterweight title in a draw with Abel Ramos on the undercard. Barrios was in control early before Ramos dominated the middle rounds. Each had a knockdown in the 12-round bout.

It was the first fight for the 29-year-old Barrios since he was appointed the WBC welterweight champ when Terence Crawford started the process of moving up from the 147-pound class.

Barrios, who is 29-2-1, won the interim WBC title with a unanimous decision over Yordenis Ugás last year. The 33-year-old Ramos is 28-6-3.

Social media star-turned-boxer Jake Paul and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson are going head-to-head in a live boxing match on Friday night, streaming on Netflix.

Paul and Tyson met on Thursday night for a weigh in and final face-off. After his opponent allegedly stepped on his foot, Tyson slapped Paul in the face.

“The talk is over,” Tyson, who weighed in at 228 pounds, said before leaving the stage.

“Now it’s personal,” Paul, who weighed in at 227 pounds, responded.

Paul told CNN that he believes in his skill and is not nervous. He also said he thinks he will knockout Tyson — who is known for his brutal knockout wins — in the fifth or sixth round.

How to watch the fight

Paul vs. Tyson will be the main event on Friday’s fight card with six other matches scheduled to kick off Netflix’s first live-streamed boxing event. Anyone with Netflix access will be able to watch at no additional cost.

The stream will begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Six other fights will take place before Paul and Tyson’s heavyweight ring walk, so their fight likely won’t start until hours later.

Jake Paul: A 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-fighter

Paul, 27, rose to fame on social media platforms with viral six-second videos on Vine and prank content with his older brother, Logan Paul, on YouTube. Today, Paul boasts over 20 million subscribers on his own YouTube channel.

The younger Paul brother had a brief acting career with a recurring role on Disney’s Bizaardvark from 2016-2018. Soon after leaving the show, he began his boxing career with an exhibition match against fellow YouTuber Deji Olatunji. Paul won by technical knockout. His first professional fight was in 2020 against YouTuber AnEsonGib, who he defeated in a technical knockout in the first round.

Paul was accused of sexual assault by TikToker Justine Paradise in 2021. Paradise says that Paul forced her to perform oral sex. Paul has denied these accusations.

Mike Tyson: The 58-year-old former heavyweight champ

Tyson, 58, began his boxing career in 1985. In 1986, Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick and became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

Friday’s matchup will mark Tyson’s first professional fight in almost 20 years. His last professional fight before retirement was a loss to Irish boxer Kevin McBride in 2005. Tyson fought multi-weight class champion Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition match in 2020.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping 18-year-old pageant contestant Desiree Washington. Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released on parole after three years and resumed his career, though he’s been a registered sex offender since.

He was accused of rape again in 2023 by a woman who claims the assault occurred in the early ’90s in a limousine in Albany, NY. She filed a lawsuit seeking $5 million for “physical, psychological and emotional injury” since the alleged incident. Tyson denied the allegations in records filed last year in district court in the Northern District of New York. The case is ongoing, and court documents indicate the latest filings from Tyson’s team are due early next week.