As a casual boxing fan I had two reasons to watch this fight. First, as a 90s kid Mike Tyson was the first ever name of a boxer that I had known because of his infamous ear biting incident. Second, I thought that Mike is the man to finally knock down Jake Paul’s smug face. But as soon as I saw Mike Tyson walking to the boxing ring, a cloud of doubt formed over my head. As I saw it, he had a nervous look on his face, and also he stumbled a little during his walkout.
Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fought 8 rounds of 2 minutes. Both of them failed to deliver a knockout punch. For my untrained eyes it seemed that both fighters ran out of gas pretty early comparing to other fighters. In Mike Tyson’s case he was 58 years old, a near the retirement age man. But Jake Paul was a 27 years old jacked up dude in his prime, boasting to be the greatest boxer in the influencer boxing scene. Then why did he failed to put Mike Tyson into sleep as he promised?
So at the end winner was chosen by the score cards of the judges. Jake Paul had managed to output way more punches than Mike Tyson. So Jake Paul won the fight. People accuse Jake Paul of fixing his matches. Before watching the match I thought there was no way Jake Paul could win against Mike Tyson without fixing the match. But after watching the fight I honestly think that Mike Tyson lost because of his weak condition due to age catching up to him. But that doesn’t make Jake Paul a clear winner in my eye because he wasn’t powerful enough to even stagger a 58 year old man. Andre Ward said it better. “ I think it’s time for Jake to call somebody out, a lot younger than Mike Tyson, little bit more dangerous, more over threatened, and somebody that the boxing public can say ‘oh we respect you, and even if you lose you took that challenge.’”
However after the win Jake Paul had a chance to boast and rub it on everyone’s face, instead he used that chance to complement and give proper respect to the OG Iron Mike Tyson. I really like Jake for that.
Mike Tyson came to the boxing ring wearing a knee brace. During the post-fight interview Ariel Helwani asked Mike about his knee. Mike admitted that he has a knee injurie and he can’t use it as an excuse. But the condition of his legs definitely affected the outcome of the fight. Roy Jones Jr. who had fought Mike Tyson in 2020 pointed out that condition of Mike’s legs had weakened since his fight, making it hard for Mike to deliver explosive blows as he intended.
Initially I jumped straight into the main fight and wasn’t planning to watch the entire 5 hours show, but I am glad for checking out other fights too, because they were far more entertaining than the lackluster main fight.
Neeraj Goyat vs Whindersson Nunes
First fight of the event, Goyat from India clashed with Nunes from Brazil. They fought a good fight, especially more experienced Goyat with his slick moves and fast punches. But both of them lacked power behind their punches to do any significant damage to each other. So they fought full 6 rounds of 3 minutes and at the end Neeraj won by unanimous decision.
Next two fighters had power to do damage and damage they did.
Mario Barrios vs Abel Ramos
Abel Ramos had challenged the champion Mario Barrios for his title. On the first glance Mario had the upper hand. He was the champion and he was slightly bigger than Abel Ramos. In the very first round Barrios managed to deliver a staggering punch to the challenger, Ramos almost got knocked down by that blow. In the second round Barrios managed to properly knockout Ramos. Despite these setbacks Ramos managed to turn the table in the 6th round by knocking out Barrios. After that both of them fought full 12 rounds fiercely. By the end of the match both of them ended up with bloody faces.
The fight ended in a split draw making Mario Barrios still the WBC Welterweight champion. Both fighters accepted the decision and parted in good terms. You know what did not end in good terms? The next fight. It ended up in a bloody mess and bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano
Both of these ladies are decorated fighters and record holders in the boxing field. This was their 2nd fight. In the first fight Katie Taylor had won by a split decision. Apparently people have a divisive opinion about that win.
I haven’t watched their first fight, but in this rematch Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano fought viciously. By the 4th round a cut appeared above Amanda Serrano’s right eye. With each round that wound started to look more and more nasty. Actually I had to pause several times because the sight of that gashing wound had sent chills down my spine and made me uncomfortable. Referee had to pause the fight and asked for a doctor to get a medical clearance before continuing the fight. Amanda insisted on keep fighting, so the fight continued for the 10 full rounds. However during the fight referee had to remind Katie “You are better than this”, and then warn her not to lead with her head. Ultimately he deducted a point from Katie for head-butting.
At the end Katie Taylor won by unanimous decision which was an unexpected result, judging from everyone’s dumbfounded reaction to it. Commentators immediately started to voice their surprise, crowd started to boo. Katie Taylor said that she doesn’t care if commentary team and the crowd disagree with the result. Amanda Serrano and her team openly accused Katie for playing dirty. They said the head-butts were intentional.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Did Katie Taylor fight dirty? Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano use different boxing stances. According to boxing experts when a southpaw boxer and an orthodox boxer fight, it could lead to head-butting accidents. Since I am a complete novice to all things boxing, I initially accepted the expert opinion. But then I have re-watched the fight few times, even using slow motion and noticed some interesting details.
In the first round there were no head-butts. Near the very end of the round Amanda Serrano managed to deliver a staggering punch to Katie Taylor’s mouth. From the second round onwards Katie Taylor used a different tactic to disarm Amanda Serrano. Katie started to duck down then move forward to shove Amanda with her forehead and then getup near Amanda’s chin causing Amanda to back down. In the fourth round Amanda got her cut, then Katie used her maneuver more frequently to capitalize on Amanda’s injury. So I think Katie did it intentionally and it was no accident. Was it playing dirty or having a better battle IQ? That, I do not know…
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