I mean, seriously, what did you expect?
I would hazard a guess that all of us who were even marginally boxing-savvy knew that there was zero chance Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson would be a satisfying boxing match on any level. We all watched anyway, though, because boxing– whether we care to admit it or not– is, and always has been, a star-driven sport.
You could program a half-dozen under-130 lb. classics for Netflix airtime and you probably wouldn’t get too far beyond the viewership of a single episode of Chimp Empire. That’s just a reality. And, brace yourself purists, but I’m about to rattle your world and make you tinkle your panties– Jake Paul may be more important to boxing in the here and now than all your precious “real fighter” favorites!
I’m not going to lie, there’s a part of me that gets a good chuckle out of Jake Paul fucking around and cashing checks on the empty vessel that boxing has become.
Like him or hate him (I lean towards the latter), Jake Paul, through his Most Valuable Promotions outfit, is the only American promoter these days actually trying to sell fights. He may be selling stupid, pointless fights (at least when it comes to his own), but at least he’s not a tired, shot Top Rank rolling over for Saudi interests or an obscenely Turki-basting whorish Oscar De La Hoya trying to sell off his every bad idea to the Saudis.
Jake Paul is hustling and is getting people paid without them having to kiss rings or aid and abet a murderous monarchy. And he’s doing it with fights where there are actually live bodies in the audience and a hefty dose of mainstream appeal.
For crissake, there was so much viewership for his non-fight with Tyson Friday night (60 million households globally, per Netflix) that it almost broke Netflix!
Oh yeah, and as a byproduct, his shenanigans got an estimated 50 million people (also per Netflix) to see that bad-ass Amanda Serrano-Katie Taylor rematch.
So, shit on Paul all you want– and it IS fun and easy to shit on him– but he’s doing better by boxing than anyone currently on the US scene.
And…and…and…This is a big one– he pulled off his money grab without hustling the money from fans.
As I wrote at The Boxing Tribune:
“Fans didn’t have to walk away from a disappointing main event feeling hoodwinked and cheated out of their hard-earned pay-per-view money. Aired via Netflix subscription with no additional charge, the only cost to fans was the time wasted watching a half-assed Jake Paul-Mike Tyson sparring session.”
As for the actual fight?
I summed it up succinctly, also in my Boxing Tribune recap:
“As the broadcast paused and bufferd and pixelated from the massive overload of viewership, the fight underwhelmed and proved to be every bit the worked hustle cynics and critics claimed it was going to be.
Mike Tyson, the one-time king of all fighters, had about 20 seconds of bravado in his 58-year-old body before he became a true-to-form 58-year-old man.
The 27-year-old content creator-turned-boxer Jake Paul, even with a weak resume filled with non-boxers and celebrities and a skill set more closely resembling that of a mid-level club fighter, easily handled the slowed-down and rickety former baddest man on the planet.
After clearly buzzing Tyson with some nothing-special punches in the third round, Paul eased off his already eased-up pace and clearly carried the Hall of Famer the rest of the eight-round contest to take a unanimous decision by scores of 80-72 and 79-73 (twice).
In the post-fight press conference, the now 11-1 Paul admitted to laying off the fragile legend.
‘Yeah definitely. Definitely a bit,’ he admitted to reporters. ‘I wanted to give the fans a show but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.’
Paul’s words unwittingly affirmed the utter pointlessness of this entire matchup.
The bout, contested with 14-ounce gloves and inside of two-minute rounds, featured a grand total of 96 punches landed per Compubox, with Tyson (now 50-7) only accounting for 18 of them. And even that 18-punch, 2.25 punches-per-round tally seemed to be a bit generous as it’s hard to recall the former heavyweight champion landing anything worth tallying. By their count, though, Compubox saw Tyson only landing six punches in the five rounds after being wobbled in the third.”
Again, this level of shittiness was expected for Paul-Tyson.
But our tired, jaded, lazy boxing businessmen– who are currently leading the sport into either a Darth Vader Death Star of corruption or into an abyss– would do well to try and replicate at least some of Jake Paul’s energy and promotional gumption.
Paul, with his following, and Tyson, with his mainstream legend status, are going to sell no matter what. Boxing can’t replicate the kind of attention these guys can generate.
However, Jake Paul’s boxing successes prove that boxing is still a viable commercial vehicle. People WANT to buy into boxing. The sport just needs the fighters to fight and the promoters to bring some energy and outside-the-box thinking to stand out in a present tense where eye-catching sports and entertainment options are, literally, everywhere.
It’s more than possible to present “real” boxing as at least one-tenth as engaging as Jake Paul pretend boxing. It won’t happen, though, with the sport’s power brokers lining up to sell off their best product to overseas interests and utterly abandoning their at-home market (Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, for example, was the only American-run major boxing event scheduled on US soil in an 8-month span, between June’s Tank Davis/David Benavidez PPV twin bill and this coming February’s David Benavidez-David Morrell show).
Resolve and ingenuity, however, are not common commodities among today’s boxing business people. So, expect just more of the same from them as they muddle along and then get pushed aside every few months when the Jake Paul Circus comes through and makes the mainstream care about boxing again.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com
