Sport News: Exclusive: ‘I Was At Jake Paul Vs

As Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano walked to the center of the ring for the final round of their latest epic, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas was on its feet.

By that point in the fight, everyone knew exactly what would happen. The two women would meet toe-to-toe and trade blows practically non-stop for two minutes.

About an hour later, those same fans were streaming out of the arena in their droves. For as much as Taylor-Serrano lived up to the billing, Jake Paul’s fight against Mike Tyson was just as far the other way as a major disappointment.

Unlike the final round of Taylor-Serrano, the beauty of Paul against Tyson was supposed to be that nobody quite knew what would happen. There was a palpable sense of anticipation in the air as the first bell rung, especially after Tyson’s menacing ring walk, all alone.

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As the first bell sounded there was a roar as Tyson stalked his pray. Could he silence the YouTuber-turned-boxer and roll back the years?

Plenty of those in attendance and the millions watching online on Netflix thought so. At least they hoped so.

But what played out in reality was the outcome everybody feared, and should have realized was likely, played out in its most sad and painful form.

The narrative around Paul-Tyson probably fell right in the middle of head vs heart territory. Almost all logic – backed by the bookmakers – suggested Paul would win.

He had a 31-year age advantage on his opponent. Tyson looked shot when he lost his final professional fight to Kevin McBride.

That was 20 years ago, and he’s hardly got any better in the intervening two decades. Sure, this is only Jake Paul, but it was never going to take much to beat this version of Tyson.

The only hope was Tyson’s power. He still had it, right? Sure, but he never had the speed or mobility to actually put it to any use, and within the blink of an eye fatigue set in and survival was the only objective.

One judge ringside scored a round in Tyson’s favor. It could only have been the first or possibly the second round, and either way that was extremely generous.

By round three, it was painfully clear the contest was going to play out in a predictable fashion. Paul had Tyson briefly buzzed, and the veteran was visibly exhausted heading back to his corner.

Round four underlined that not only was the worst fear of fans coming true, but it would be played out in the most excruciating and frustrating way possible. Instead of going for the finish, it became apparent in the fourth round that Paul had little intention of knocking out Tyson and was essentially carrying him through the fight.

In the final 10 seconds, he stopped and bowed to his opponent. It was supposed to be a sign of respect, but this spectacle was anything but respectful of the icons of the sport.

Not only was one of the greatest boxers of all-time outboxed and outmanoeuvred by the social media star, he also needed to be carried through the fight. It was a sad indictment of what was always likely to be a mismatch, but one which many believed promised a knockout either way.

After the fight, Paul, who had declared Tyson “must die” after he slapped him at their final face-off, admitted that he had not wanted to knock out Tyson as the fight went on.

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

Tyson landed just 18 shots and could barely lay a glove on Paul in what was a sorry spectacle for boxing. Fans streamed out of the stadium before the result were even announced, knowing a comfortable Paul win was a formality.

I don’t have the stats to hand, but I’d wager there’s a decent chance Taylor and Serrano landed almost as many punches in the final round as Tyson and Paul did across all eight.

The fight really was the worst of boxing, preying on one of the sport’s biggest names as nothing more than a payday and a circus act which, at times, even he felt uncomfortable with as he struggled to engage with the buildup prior to the slap.

The contrast could not have been sharper than with Taylor and Serrano’s epic just moments earlier, which stole the show and demonstrated this great sport at its captivating, brilliant best.

Netflix’s first foray into live sports went from the sublime to the ridiculous. In the case of the latter, it was as bad as any script could’ve drawn it up if it wanted its worst case scenario.