Cheering fans, a tired 58-year-old fighter and a lack of aggression disrupt one of the most hyped boxing fights of the year.

Boos from a crowd wanting more action grew again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves and bowed to 58-year-old Mike Tyson before the final bell.

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

(Relive the fight in our live coverage report.)

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 fight in nearly 20 years.

All the hatred from the pre-fight buildup was gone, replaced by boos from stunned fans hoping for more from a fight that raised many questions about its legitimacy well in advance.

American basketball icon Magic Johnson expressed his disappointment with X, saying: “The fight wasn’t great for boxing.”

Just sad sm. 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 wasn’t great for boxing.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 16, 2024

The fight wasn’t exciting according to the judges’ cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 lead and the other two calling it 79-73.

“Let’s give it up for Mike,” Paul said in the ring, not getting much of a response from a crowd that had already begun to file out before the decision was announced. ‘He’s the best to ever do it. I look up to him. I am inspired by him.”

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

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

Paul was more aggressive after Tyson’s quick burst in the opening seconds, but the punches were not very efficient. There were quite a few wild swings and misses.

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

Paul said he took it easy from the third round on because he thought Tyson was tired and vulnerable.

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

It was the first sanctioned fight since 2005 for Tyson, who will face Roy Jones Jr. in 2020. fought at a much nicer exhibition. Paul started fighting a little over four years ago.

“I didn’t prove anything to anyone but myself,” Tyson said when asked what it meant to complete the fight. “I’m not one of those guys who wants to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”

Tyson punched Paul in the face at the weigh-in the night before the fight, and they traded insults at various hype events, before and after the postponement.

By the end of the anticlimactic fight, the hatred was long gone.

“I have so much respect for him,” Paul said. “That violence and war stuff between us, like after he punched me, I wanted to be aggressive and take him down and knock him out and all that stuff. That disappeared as the rounds progressed.