Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul punch stats show just how ‘sad’ fight really was | Boxing | Sport

It was technically billed as a professional boxing fight, but Mike Tyson and Jake Paul failed to deliver the excitement and entertainment fans had been clamouring for in Texas.

Boos rang out from the 70,000-strong crowd at AT&T Stadium when the bout – consisting of eight rounds lasting two minutes each – was brought to an underwhelming close. While Paul looked every bit the novice boxer, his pace and endurance was too much for Tyson.

The judges’ awarded a unanimous victory in Paul’s favour, with the 27-year-old’s scorecards of 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73 showing a comfortable victory for the Cleveland native.

But it didn’t represent just how disappointing the fight was as a spectacle for the millions tuned in.

While Tyson’s courage in taking on a fighter 31 years younger than him has to be admired, it told a sad story as a sporting contest – and the statistics from the bout are undeniable.

‘Iron Mike’, making his first competitive appearance since 2005, simply ran out of gas within the first few minutes of the eight-round contest as he failed to hit his mark with his shots.

In the entire 16 minutes of action in Texas, the former undisputed heavyweight world champion landed only 18 punches – averaging just 2.25 successful hits per round.

In total, he only attempted 97 punches, giving him an accuracy of just 18 per cent overall.

By a stark contrast, Paul nearly launched three times as many punches during the fight to highlight where the fight was won and lost. The ‘Problem Child’ had put himself through a gruelling training routine, but it was clearly worth it as his athleticism showed.

He threw 278 punches in total – dwarfing his ageing opponent’s overall sum of just 97. In the third round alone, the Cleveland star rumbled Tyson with 44 attempted punches and connected with 16.

However, Paul’s accuracy proved he still has some way to go to hone his craft, having landed only 78 of those punches to give him an accuracy of 28 per cent.

Given that Tyson wasn’t active in moving around the ring at all, it took some of the gloss off Paul’s victory in Texas that he wasn’t able to knock out on of boxing’s greatest names while he was wiltering.

But with the huge age gap giving Paul a massive athletic advantage and Tyson’s inability to keep up, it was difficult to see any winners emerging from this damp squib – with the fans the clear losers in the end as they made their feelings known.