In a press conference following the match, Paul admitted that by the third round, he realized he needed to dial things way back. “I wanted to give the fans a show,” Paul said, “but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.” When asked if he felt Tyson’s power in the ring, Paul simply responded, “No.” (Tyson did not attend the press conference, nor did his representatives respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.)
“There’s a sense of disappointment in the room,” commentator Kate Scott said from the media stand as the crowd grew restless and, at certain points, sad. “Everybody was kind of hoping, to the last minute, man, that [Tyson] going to find something special, and, well…”
“The crowd, they were confused throughout the fight,” says light heavyweight champion turned commentator Andre Ward. “Their heart is with Mike and they wanted something to cheer about. But Mike wasn’t giving them much to cheer about, because of the age, and the wear and tear.”
“They didn’t want to boo Mike,” Ward said. “They were kind of restless, and they didn’t really know what to do.”
Others, like Magic Johnson, were so crushed by the reality of the match that they had to turn it off. “Just sad smh,” the legendary NBA star wrote on X. “I cut it off because I couldn’t watch anymore. It’s sad to see Mike Tyson like this because I went to every Tyson fight. This fight tonight was not great for boxing.”
It’s likely that Paul disagreed. In the moments after the judges announced the unanimous decision in his favor, Paul took the mic to first praise Tyson, saying, “he’s the greatest to ever do it,” before making a brief speech that echoed his tweet celebrating Trump’s win last week.
“It’s the era of truth. It’s the era of good. There’s a shift in the world, and good is rising,” Paul said. “The truth is rising, I’m just honored to be a party of America. It feels like we’re back, baby.”
