The underwhelming and boring Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson “fight”, further marred by Netflix’s massive streaming failure, was a spectacle that proved what we all already knew.
Jake Paul is a phenomenal promoter but not a professional boxer.
The crowd packed in AT&T Stadium to watch a great fight and to be fair, they got two great fights not named “Tyson vs Paul.”
The undercard featured six bouts, the strangest being India’s Neeraj Goyat vs. Brazil’s Whindersson Nunes. Goyat is the first Indian fighter to be ranked by the WBC, and after watching him fight, I have no idea why. Most of his punches made him look like he was a student in a CKO Kickboxing class, and at one point he forced Nunes to the corner and gyrated on him from the back.
The best bouts on the card were the welterweight brawl between Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos and a rematch between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, a Fight of the Year nominee.
Barrios was winning his fight until he got rocked by Ramos and sent to the canvas. But he recovered and survived to win a split draw (114-112, 110-116, 113-113).
The rematch between Serrano and Taylor was the most exciting fight of the night and one of the best of the year. The action was constant, the punches vicious and the courage shown by Serrano after Taylor led with her head all night was inspiring to watch. In the end, Serrano was robbed (again) by a unanimous 95-94 decision by all three judges.
Then came the main event, which was a sad sight to see.
When the fight was first announced in March, I asked why we needed it.
On Friday night, that question was answered with a resounding “We didn’t.”
Tyson, 58, showed that Father Time cannot be beaten. The legendary boxer threw a total of 97 punches over the 10-round fight while demonstrating that his illustrious boxing career had ended many years ago, which is fine.
Even unable to watch three rounds of the fight due to Netflix’s streaming issues, it appears I missed nothing in rounds three to five as the story was the same each round.
Paul acted like it was an exhibition bout despite throwing almost 300 punches. In the end, he simply bowed to Tyson out of respect.
“He’s exactly what I thought and one of the greatest to ever do it,” Paul said after the fight’s merciful conclusion. “This guy has always had my back. I love him and his family and his coaches. It was an honor to be in the ring with all of them.”
Then he quickly transformed into full promoter mode to gloat about the success of his event, even taking a moment to take a shot at Canelo Alvarez.
“This is the biggest event ever, over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site. Everyone is next on the list. I’m not going to call out specific names. Canelo needs me, so I’m not going to try to call him out. He knows he wants the payday and he knows where the money fight is.”
I have said many times that Jake Paul deserves credit for bum rushing boxing and carving out a lane for boxing entertainment. He’s also been able to successfully elevate women’s boxing by promoting Serrano’s fights in the process and deserves credit for that.
But as a competitor in professional boxing, Paul has no standing.
He crafted a way for opponents to earn a big payday, but no real pro boxer should take the bait, especially Canelo for that would mar his legacy forever.
Paul has faced mostly washed-up MMA fighters who don’t box, so dropping them in front of sold-out crowds proves nothing to fans of pugilism.
On Friday night during a poorly produced event by Netflix, where the stream was interrupted multiple times, microphones weren’t working and the celebrity commentators struggled to find the words to analyze the main event except to express gratitude that Tyson was able to go the distance at his age, Jake Paul proved he could put on a great show through a bout that should never have been sanctioned.
But part of that show was his continued attempt to prove that he’s a boxer, which he’s not.
