Paul (L) Tyson (R) Made Mega Bucks

Photo: Special to the NY Beacon

By Joshua Garcia

Taylor (L) Serrano (R) Best Fight of the Night

Photo: Special to the NY Beacon

Blurring lines between entertainment and sports can be dangerous when playing the credibility game, and Boxing is currently teetering on the edge with characters like Jake Paul. The sweet science had so much to boast about at the moment, finally seeing the best matchups, albeit in the Middle East, but bringing traditional and casual fans alike for blockbuster fights like Usyk-Fury and Crawford-Spence. But long-retired Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul was not that, not at all. 

A trade off of attention and buzz surrounding marquee events is not worth the risk of turning beloved hand-to-hand combat into a spectacle of embarrassment that will stain the future of the sport forever. Celebrity boxing has gained momentum over the last few years, but last Friday night in Texas, it hit a new all-time low, clearly showing said blurred lines have completely disappeared. 

Mike Tyson, a legend, “the baddest man on the planet” as he was labeled throughout his Boxing career was transformed from a superhero to a punchline in front of our very eyes. It was like watching Superman in reverse, and nobody idolized the regularity of Clark Kent. Watching Tyson struggle with a YouTuber in his domain, a boxing ring, was extremely tough to endure. 

A 58-year-old Mike Tyson stood in the squared circle in front of AT&T Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys have looked about the same as Iron Mike has this season, tired, old, and ready to call it quits. Jake Paul, would dance around with Tyson for several rounds on a shaky Netflix Stream that was overloaded with consumers and buffered throughout the less than exciting bout. 

As much bad as the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul damaged the aesthetic, spirit, and soul of the sport, is as much positive as the undercard between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano did for Boxing. Following their incredible first bout at Madison Square Garden, they enthralled the football-sized crowd before the inevitable let down of Tyson versus Paul. 

Matching the ferocity and intensity of the first fight was going to be a challenge, but in many ways it went far beyond the instant classic that was their inaugural battle in New York. Just like their first date however, the fight left fans and analysts everywhere puzzled and up in arms at the controversial judge’s scorecards. 

Following their matchup up at MSG, Amanda Serrano, after coming up short on the decision in the first fight, came out decisively more aggressive and precise. Camp must have been all about efficiency and effectiveness of each individual punch, because Serrano’s accuracy was off the charts. 

Amanda Serrano in the first two rounds was landing at a percentage of 48% punches thrown, and her outstanding targeting saw her stagger Katie Taylor at the end of round 1. A stunned Taylor held on for dear life as the bell for the opening round sounded loudly in Texas. 

Katie Taylor came back strong in rounds 3-5, using her lightning quick hands and combination punches to look busy and like she was bringing the fight to Amanda Serrano, not the opposite. As evidenced by the first fight, Taylor knows just how the judges will lean and never keeps that too far from her minds-eye when developing her in-fight strategy. Keeping busy, standing close in the pocket, trading exchanges all go a long way on narrow ringside official’s cards when scoring rounds. 

Everything was going Amanda’s way until a jolt from the head of Katie Taylor on an inside lockup opened up the entire right eyebrow of Serrano. Although Serrano continued to be tedious and relentless through the entirety of the fight, she lost a bit out of the tank from the headbutt. Be it loss of blood, vision loss, faster fatigue rate, the damage to her eye influenced the rest of the fight, plain and simple.

And on a night where Jake Paul, a YouTuber off the street essentially, fought a Boxing Legend nearing 60 years old, who looked light years away from “the Alien” version of Bernard Hopkins who was winning titles and fighting into his 50s, the biggest disgrace was the robbery of Amanda Serrano. The rivalry between the 7-division champ and Katie Taylor is approaching Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao territory, and the Boxing World is all for a trilogy and possibly more, with the hunger for this matchup that these ladies have created. 

In more ways than one Taylor-Serrano mirrors the four fight epic series between Pacquiao-Marquez, but the most identical is the controversy over their bouts. Juan Manuel Marquez felt he had no shot at a win by decision after coming up short twice and once with a draw against his famous foe, and in their last meeting, nearly sent Manny Pacquiao into the afterlife with one of the greatest KO’s in the sport’s history. A severe knockout was the only thing that finally earned Marquez a victory over Pacquiao, and it may very well be what Serrano needs to beat Taylor in a trilogy next year. 

For one thing and one thing only does Jake Paul deserve some flowers, and that’s giving a platform to that incredible women’s boxing display to which Terence Crawford, the arguable pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world, called “The Fight of the Year!”. Paul has brought eyes to the world of Boxing yes, but there is no chance those eyes enjoyed what they saw on a choppy Netflix stream last Friday night, unless you are talking about Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, the real fighters.