By SCHUYLER DIXON AP Sports Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas – The boos from a crowd wanting more action grew again as Jake Paul dropped the gloves before the final bell and bowed out to 58-year-old Mike Tyson.

Paying tribute to one of the biggest names in boxing history didn’t do much for the fans who packed 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 professional bout in nearly 20 years.

All the hate from the pre-match build-up was gone, replaced by boos from confused fans hoping for more action in a fight that raised many questions about its legitimacy long before it happened.

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

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

Tyson got after Paul right 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 usual 10 or 12 and two-minute rounds instead of three, along with heavier gloves designed to reduce the power of punches, could do little to create action.

Paul was more aggressive after the quick burst from Tyson in the opening seconds, but the punching was not very effective. There were a lot of wild swings and misses.

“I tried to hurt him a little bit,” said Paul, who improved to 11-1. “I was afraid he was going to hurt me. I tried to hurt him. I tried my best. I tried 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 retained her undisputed super lightweight championship with another controversial decision.

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

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

Tyson’s record is now 50-7 with 44 knockouts.

The fight was originally scheduled for July 20 but had to be postponed when Tyson was treated for a stomach ulcer after becoming ill on a flight.

Tyson punched Paul in the face during the weigh-in the night before the fight, and they traded insults in several of the hype events, before and after the shootout.

The hatred was long gone by the end of the underwhelming fight.

“This guy has always had my back,” Paul said of Tyson. “I love him. I love his family, his coaches. It’s just an honor to be in the ring with all of them.”

The fight set a Texas record for combat sports with a gate of nearly $18 million, according to organizers, and Netflix had streaming issues in the streaming platform’s first live martial arts 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.”

STREAMING DELAYS FOR NETFLIX

Netflix’s first attempt at handling a live sporting event didn’t get a passing grade.

The battle experienced streaming issues according to many viewers on social media. Many viewers took to Twitter/X and Bluesky to express their frustrations with streaming and buffering issues before and during the fight.

According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged interruptions or streaming issues leading up to the fight.

The bout was scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to the usual three minutes and 10 or 12 rounds of most pro fights.

Netflix representatives had no comment via email to The Associated Press about the streaming issues viewers experienced before or during the fight.

The match was Netflix’s biggest live sports event to date and an opportunity to ensure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon. It was streamed globally to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost.

Netflix will air two NFL games on Christmas Day and will begin streaming WWE “Raw” on Jan. 6.

The streaming delays weren’t the only problems Netflix experienced ahead of the fight.

Viewers saw Tyson’s butt in just a jockstrap as he walked off at the end of a pre-fight interview in his locker room.

For some reason, Netflix chose to make light of the faux pas.

TAYLOR EDGE’S SERRANO IN CONTROVERSIAL DECISION

The rematch between Taylor and Serrano was just as bloody and bruising as the original.

The disputed decision – and the reaction to it – was also the same.

Taylor retained his super lightweight championship in a straight-edge unanimous decision over Serrano on Friday night in a slugfest remarkably similar to their epic match in New York two years ago.

Taylor was scored a 95-94 winner by all three judges, drawing boos from the crowd.

The 38-year-old from Ireland remained the undisputed champion and in the super lightweight and lightweight divisions. It was the third win since Taylor’s first professional loss (24-1, six knockouts).

Serrano, who continued to punch despite suffering a nasty cut over her left eye in the sixth round, was a crowd favorite in much the same way she was in the contested split decision at Madison Square Garden in 2022.

In the sold-out slugfest, they were the first women to headline a combat sports event in the main arena. The 36-year-old Serrano, a seven-division champion, is 47-3-1 with 31 knockouts.

It might have started a little slower than the New York meet, but things changed when Serrano, who is from Puerto Rico but lives in New York, got the nasty cut.

The injury forced the referee to call a timeout in the middle of the sixth round, and tight close-ups for the rest of the fight drew gasps from the audience in the first combat sports broadcast from the streaming platform Netflix.

However, Serrano never stopped hitting and seemed to have Taylor reeling in the final seconds of the match. Taylor leaned into Serrano repeatedly and seemed to have trouble staying up on his own. She had already been deducted a point for a headbutt in the eighth round.

Taylor was fighting for the first time since avenging her only professional loss by beating Chantelle Cameron for the undisputed super-flyweight title in a rematch in her home country a year ago.

The Taylor-Serrano fight in New York was more of a celebration of women’s boxing, despite the questions about the result. Serrano was a little more frustrated this time, questioning the fairness of the fight with her complaints about headbutts and posturing as the fight progressed.