Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, The Real Main-Event

 

 

 

 

I must admit, I was not a big fan of the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. Although there was hope Tyson would reclaim some of that old magic, Paul fought smart. He was able to keep Mike away from him throughout the fight. Part of it was Mike’s slow and inflexible feet. It seemed he just struggled to keep up with the more bouncy-footed younger fighter, Jake Paul. 

 

The fight was definitely advertised well. Lots of people watched the fight—over 60 million households. The broadcast was plagued with buffering problems, probably caused by an overload in the shared bandwidth. Combined that with the fact that there were over 60 million households watching, of course that was bound to happen; however, during the main event, the Tyson and Paul fight itself, the problem seemed to go away. 

The fight itself was a sleeper. I almost fell asleep a couple of times. I am sure I wasn’t the only one who thought so. It lacked any entertainment value whatsoever. What else do we really expect? Tyson’s mind wanted to be great, but the 58-year-old body just didn’t allow him to do what his younger self could have done easily. If Mike was 20 years younger, he would have most likely destroyed Paul quite handedly within 3 rounds. But Mike actually didn’t do that badly in the first 3 rounds. He held his own. The problem was that it went to distance, which, as I predicted, would be more beneficial for the younger fighter. 

Paul, I thought took it easy on Mike in the last round. It felt as if he just needed to push a little bit further and Mike would have gotten knocked out. This was later confirmed when Paul himself stated he indeed took a step back and didn’t push himself for the knockout. 

Though the main even was a snoozer, I can’t say the same thing for the co-main event: Katie Taylor(Champion) and Amanda Serrano fight, a fight marred with a really bad headbutt. Personally, I don’t think Taylor was head-butting Serrano intentionally. Both fighters seemed to be both to blame. Taylor has had bad rap as a headbutter, but it’s the way she keeps her balance when she gets cornered that’s the issue. Watching the fourth round where the headbutt occurred that opened a gash on Serrano’s right eye, there’s no indication that it was intentional at all. Both women were coming for each other in close quarters, one of whom keeps her head leaning toward her opponent. This in no way indicates she was headbutting her opponents intentionally. 

Despite the headbutt, I express the possibility Serrano should have won that fight, but to take it from the champion, a challenger needs to do more than enough to win. Apparently, the judge saw that Taylor was still countering while it seemed Serrano had the upper hand. It is what it is. Taylor won the fight, but Serrano gained more fans; however, to say Serrano dominated the fight is misleading, but to say she probably should have won is more acceptable. 

The takeaway from the Tyson and Paul main event is that it could hurt any possible interest in possible fights between older and younger boxers. It just didn't live up to the billing. It was, in turn, a fight that should never have happened.