Jake Paul and Katie Taylor provide a study in contrast that would be amusing if it did not contain such stark truths about the different strands of boxing they represent. The brash YouTube influencer, Paul, is now a novice boxer making $40m (£31.7m) in a contrived bout as he continues to change the landscape of the fight game with his crudely effective business strategies.
Taylor remains the quiet, pioneering Christian who has done more than anyone for female boxers around the world while drawing on her incredible will to prevail in one brutal fight after another.
They were the opposing winners at the vast and gleaming home of the Dallas Cowboys on Friday night in Texas. Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who is promoted by Paul, produced an extraordinary contest which came close to matching the gravitas of their first fight at Madison Square Garden in April 2022. It was crammed with grit, skill and the kind of bloody controversy which accompanies the most profound rivalries.
Paul beat a 58-year-old Mike Tyson in an embarrassing charade which, for all the hoopla, ended up being booed. Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, his menacingly suave business partner, tried hard to make it sound as if we had just seen a modern variant of the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila. It was, instead, a stinker.
Even Paul seemed to feel some sadness at the ravaged sight of Tyson. He suggested that he had spared old Mike from a knockout: “Yeah, definitely. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt.”
That seemingly gracious admission was soon tarnished as Bidarian and Paul put their big mouths to work. “It was an unbelievable display between a 58-year-old legend and a 27-year-old relatively young boxer,” Bidarian said. “He actually outboxed the boxer. Jake Paul out-boxed Mike Tyson, like he said he was going to do.”
Bidarian turned to Paul: “Did you not? Like every single round.” He snorted with laughter.
Paul shrugged: “I told everyone what I was going to do – give him a boxing lesson.”
They then mocked two great contemporary fighters. Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, the brilliant Mexican world champion, has been a professional fighter since he made his debut as a 15-year-old in 2005. Canelo has lost only two of his 66 pro fights and won world titles in four weight classes.
I could imagine the cold laughter dying in Canelo’s throat when Paul said: “Canelo needs me. He knows he wants a payday and he knows where the money man’s at.”
Oleksandr Usyk, the undisputed world heavyweight champion, was ridiculed next. I remembered how Usyk stroked his moustache and grinned when telling me that he would have to fight with one arm behind his back to lend a semblance of parity to an absurd match-up with Paul – who lost to Tommy Fury, the brother of Tyson, in the only competitive fight he has so far dared to take.
Canelo and Usyk would cause serious damage to Paul, for they bring decades of hard-bitten experience, dazzling skill and withering power to the ring. For all the fevered talk, I suspect Paul knows he is safer and richer fighting old men or athletes who have never boxed before.
“People just love to hate me,” Paul said. “I’m easy to hate and I intentionally say things to make people hate me. I play the heel, and that’s entertainment. I started as a 17-year-old in Los Angeles in the entertainment business. But I’ve been in this sport for four and a half years and I plan on doing everything in boxing.”
One day, Paul will really believe he is as regal as he claims and he will finally step into the ring with a legitimate and dangerous opponent. He should be extremely careful then because no other sport strips away arrogance and hubris as brutally as boxing.
Taylor and Serrano understand these harsh truths and they operate at an elite level far beyond the toytown tiffs and museum scraps which define Paul’s career. “We trained so hard for those moments,” Taylor said of her monumental battle with Serrano. “Anybody’s punch can change a fight in boxing and she’s a hard puncher. She’s a very tough warrior and I was prepared.”
There has always been a deep mutual respect between these two champions – but their rivalry now carries a darker edge. Serrano, aggrieved to have lost both fights by such narrow margins, sounded uncharacteristically bitter: “I knew if it went to the judges it was going to be a little shady. I chose to be great. I went up three divisions. I’m a featherweight, man.”
Serrano then posted a message online: “I’m a ruthless warrior & Katie is my buddy but damn her best attribute is her head. No punching power but hard-ass head lol.”
Taylor responded: “I certainly wasn’t fighting dirty. It gets rough in there. It was an absolute slugfest, a war. This is an amazing moment in women’s boxing. Thank God for another amazing fight.”
The softly spoken and deeply religious woman from Bray, just outside Dublin, can cut a figure of rare purity in this dirty business. But Taylor is a fighter to the very bones of her being and, for once, she spoke forcefully about Serrano and her camp: “I knew they were complaining about the decision but I really don’t care. I’m standing here as a victor again. I’ve fought her twice, I’ve beat her twice. All the judges were in agreement so I couldn’t care less what’s being said. I’m 2 and 0 against Serrano and I’m very, very happy.”
But Taylor, unlike Paul and Bidarian, personifies class and grace. She smiled before slipping back into the more discreet shadows of victory. “It was another really close fight,” she said. “We’ve had two epic fights, two very close decisions, and I’m just proud to be part of another huge night for women’s boxing.”
