Mike Tyson said his boxing match against 27-year-old Jake Paul “is one of those situations when you lost but still won” and he has “no regrets to get in ring one last time.” Though he didn’t win the bout, Tyson said he did pull off a victory of his own: allowing his kids to see him go toe-to-toe one last time, something he said was “an experience that no man has the right to ask for.”
“This is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in ring one last time,” Tyson wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I almost died in June. Had 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he concluded.
While speaking to reporters following the match, Paul said he took things easy on Tyson after the third round. “Definitely a bit. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt,” he explained.
Though that might have meant people in the audience — some of whom booed and left before the fight was finished — were displeased, Paul added that he wouldn’t have done anything differently. “So I couldn’t really get him to engage me or slip shots and do something super cool or whatever, but I don’t care about what people have to say,” he added. “They’re always going to have something to say and that it is what it is.”
Tyson unanimously lost the fight against Paul Friday night, though Netflix might have come out of the evening as the true loser after users experienced repeated glitches that made watching the match difficult.
