Jake Paul makes confession after Mike Tyson fight

The YouTuber-turned-boxer addresses what everyone was thinking during his fight with the retired world champ.

Jake Paul claims he deliberately avoided knocking out Mike Tyson as their highly-anticipated bout failed to live up to the hype.

The 58-year-old boxing icon lost on points but went the full eight rounds against the influencer-turned-boxer 31 years his junior.

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Tyson started the on the front foot before seemingly beginning to tire and fall away from round three onwards.

By the final round, few punches were thrown and stats show Paul landed just 78 across the fight.

Jake Paul said he did pull his blows in the fight against a retired Mike Tyson. Picture: Sarah Stier/Getty Images for Netflix

Tyson scored even fewer, connecting with his rival just 18 times.

Asked about not going for the knockout blow, Paul said in his press conference: “There was a point where I was like he is not really engaging back.

“So I don’t know if he is tired. I can just tell his age was showing a little bit.

“I just have so much respect for him and that war thing between us after he slapped me, I wanted to be aggressive, take him down and knock him out.

Jake Paul, 27, landed most of the punches. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

The fighters embraced in the final seconds. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

“But that kind of went away as the rounds went on.

“I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”

Holding back on the killer shot annoyed fans, with some calling it the “worst fight ever” and “con of the century”.

To make matters worse for viewers, many had problems watching the contest as Netflix’s live stream was hit by technical difficulties like buffering and sound issues.

The fight has been derided as a gimmick. Picture: Al Bello/Getty Images for Netflix

One of the fight’s biggest critics was promoter Eddie Hearn.

He said: “I didn’t really watch it, I was in Katie Taylor’s changing room.

“I watched the first 30 seconds which were quite entertaining.

“After that it was horrible to watch. It was hard to watch and it was always going to be like that.

“Mike came out like a raging bull, but after that he was gassed.

“Mike’s a legend and he showed a load of heart, but you just don’t need to see it.”

This article originally appeared in The Sun and has been republished with permission.