Dr. Wu, Russian Hit Men and the Clean-up of AIBA

Published

10 years ago

November 15, 2014

JEJU, South Korea — There probably never will be a movie made about political turmoil within the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the global governing body for Olympic-style boxing. But there ought to be, because there was genuine behind-the-scenes drama within the organization in the late 1990s and into the first few years of the 21^st century. It’s a compelling tale of corruption, coercion, bribery and violence, with Russian thugs even lurking in the background.

And if Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu, since 2006 the reform-minded president of AIBA, is to be believed, the continued existence of boxing as part of the huge quadrennial Olympic festival hung in the balance. Yes, there was boxing in the 2012 London Olympics, and there will be boxing in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but rumblings about the long-term health of the one of the sports under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been heard for the better part of 20 years. One more confidence-eroding scandal, one more verifiable incident of fixed fights, of bought-and-paid for officials, of charlatans in high places and … well, who knows? Dynasties have been toppled for far less.

“I’ve been hearing for the last three Olympics that we (boxing) might be on the chopping block,” Mike Martino, interim executive director of USA Boxing, said here at the 2014 AIBA Congress, a gathering of 50 national federations (oops, make that 47; representatives of three West African countries were advised not to come because of fears the Ebola virus might have tagged along with them) that is notable if only for the fact that this is the first such event in which members of the worldwide media were invited to attend. For AIBA, which for 25 years under the late Dr. Anwar Chowdhry of Pakistan regarded reporters as enemies, this new era of relative transparency is akin to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Those of us who have caught a glimpse of what is behind the formerly closed curtains are seeing is the implementation of many policy changes, not the least of which is a transition into professional boxing. The tinkering is still not universally welcomed or accepted, but if change is coming, at least let it be above-board and made with the purest of intentions.

“Any reform is not easy,” said Dr. Wu, 68, a soft-spoken and conservatively dressed individual who seems an unlikely candidate for the role of crusading firebrand. “But you have to show your determination in the face of any threat. When you are strong, they become weak.

“I insist on change. I say (to supporters of Chowdhry, who was voted out of office in 2006), `If you do not agree, you can leave. If you break the rules, you will face disciplinary action.’”

Chowdhry loyalists who didn’t agree with the new president depicted him as something more dangerous than his deposed predecessor, who had come to regard AIBA as his personal fiefdom and ATM. The most hard-line faction of the opposition filed multiple lawsuits against Dr. Wu in Lausanne, Switzerland, headquarters of the IOC, in the hopes of killing or at least stalling his initiatives.

“They went to the courts, accusing AIBA, accusing me,” he said. “I went to see the judge in the Swiss court. He said I did not need to come back. All of the complaints against me were dismissed.”

So Dr. Wu – sort of sounds like a character from a James Bond movie, doesn’t it? – triumphs in the closing reel of that movie that probably never will get made. But along the way there was intrigue, turmoil and even a corpse, which are plot elements with which the late Ian Fleming, creator of superspy 007, would have had a field day.

That the new-look AIBA is meeting on this resort island, a few hundred miles from the South Korean capital of Seoul, site of the 1988 Summer Olympics, is somewhat curious. It was in Seoul that America’s Roy Jones Jr. was involved in the most blatant ripoff in the history of Olympic boxing. But the “loss” by Jones – by a 3-2 margin, after he had thoroughly outclassed South Korea’s Park Si-Hu – was hardly an aberration. Lousy decisions have been endemic in Olympic boxing, although steps are being taken to reduce and, hopefully, even eliminate outright thievery.

“I have been a member of the IOC since 1988,” said Dr. Wu, who is familiar with the stench emanating from the Jones shafting. “I gave my commitment to the sports of the Olympic movement. That is my mission. I have to do everything I can to make sure the Olympic spirit and values are maintained.

“I also have been a member of the AIBA executive committee since 1982. There was so much manipulation of the competition under m predecessor, with the cheating, the selling of gold medals. That is totally against my principles. In 1998, I said to my predecessor, `I’m sorry, but I have to challenge you. I am going to run for president.’ He was shocked. Many people were shocked. They said my getting elected would be nearly impossible. But I wanted them to know I at least offered the possibility for change.

“Chowdhry said, `C.K. Wu, you will not get more than 12 votes.’ I got 39 (to Chowdhry’s 79). It totally surprised him because he paid many national federations that did not vote for him. It was driving him crazy. He said, `They take my money and don’t vote for me? What is that?’ But from that moment, I know there is a possibility for change.

“After I lost the election, I give my speech to the delegates and thanked them for their support. And I said, `I will return.’”

Dr. Wu did not run for the AIBA presidency in 2002, since he was advised he did not yet have enough backing to oust Chowdhry. But he tossed his hat into the ring again in 2006, and this time he emerged victorious by a vote of 83-79. His election apparently came none too soon, either.

“I was told,” Dr. Wu said, “that if I did not win when I did, boxing would be out of the Olympic movement. “Some of the delegates were reluctant to even talk to me because they are afraid of revenge from (Chowdhry).”

A pro-Chowdhry Russian delegate is said to have brought in outsiders who were members of the “Russian Mafia” to intimidate other delegates into voting for the incumbent. Perhaps it is just coincidence, but one pro-change delegate was found murdered. If that didn’t scare the bejeezus out of the electorate, nothing could.

“Very dramatic,” Dr. Wu said of most consequential election in AIBA history. “You could make a film of it, easily. But I won, by four votes. That changed everything. If I had lost, boxing is out of the 2012 Olympics, maybe even out of the 2008 Olympics.”

Chowdhry, who was 86 when he died on June 19, 2010, is not around to give his side of the story, but there no doubt are those who would say that if he were, his recollections would cast him in a more favorable light. In any case, in 2007, Chowdhry was barred for life from AIBA for mismanagement of federation funds. That fact alone would seem to substantiate Dr. Wu’s allegations.

As part of his program for nudging AIBA to a place where chicanery eventually becomes a hazy part of the past, Dr. Wu has initiated the World Series of Boxing and AIBA Pro Boxing, in which elite fighters can maintain their Olympic eligibility and also get paid. It is a concept that is embraced by numerous nations, with the chief pocket of resistance predictably coming from powerhouse American promotional companies that object to certain restrictions of movement placed upon AIBA-signed boxers.

Where does the United States fit into the ever-shifting picture? Not as prominently as it once did, and that is something that greatly concerns Dr. Wu. The lion’s share of funding in any Olympiad comes from the sale of American television rights, and boxing has been relegated to also-ran status on the Olympic TV schedule as fewer and fewer U.S. Olympians advance deep, if at all, into the medal rounds. Although the U.S. has amassed 108 total boxing medals since the modern Olympics were introduced in 1896, the most of any nation, American men were shut out in London for the first time ever.

“We have become the little guys,” conceded Tom Virgets of the United States Naval Academy, who serves as the AIBA disciplinary commission chairman as well as a member of the APB executive board.

“Of this problem we are fully aware,” Dr. Wu said of USA Boxing’s transformation into a beggar at the Olympic banquet. “We are involved in trying to make things change. United States boxing is unlike other national federations. There are so many (state and regional subsets) and they are totally divided. There needs to be a strong central body to lead U.S. boxing movement. Kazakhstan, very strong boxing federation. China, very strong boxing federation. Japan, the same. But United States? Very loose organization. Unless there is complete change with strong leadership, there can be no (improvement).”

The crux of the problem is that other nations, hungry for Olympic medals, are financially supporting their centralized boxing federations in a substantial way. The U.S., by comparison, is like the Boy Scout troop whose moms are forever conducting bake sales so their kids can go on their next woodlands outing.

“(The USOC’s) allocation (to USA Boxing) is $300,000,” Dr. Wu said. “For such a big country, that is impossible. With so little money, it only goes to administration. No development. The structure is totally wrong.

“AIBA pay the money to support (the U.S. WSB) franchise, from our budget. But our support did not get USOC’s attention. I say, `You have to support your boxing, to bring back your glory.’ You used to get five gold medals (at the 1976 Montreal Olympics), nine gold medals (1984, Los Angeles). Now you have zero, except for women. Why? Because nobody pay attention. Nobody cares.

“If somebody really cares, then put money in. Bring in the best boxers. Bring in the best coaches. Centralize. USA is 50 states. Everyone independent. Boxing federation is only symbolic. What power they got? No money. Bad cycle. Worst of the worst.”

Maybe, if the next Sugar Ray Leonard or Oscar De La Hoya were to emerge in Rio in 2016, the bleak landscape might brighten for the U.S. Dr. Wu said the WSP and APB will create Olympic boxers with star power, at least for other countries, and America badly needs someone who can jab and hook his way into the spotlight and make it his own.

“You have no brilliant boxer. No star,” Dr. Wu told two visiting reporters from the Philadelphia area. “Difficult to get marketing, sponsorship. But (the U.S. has) many good boxers. Just need intensive training.

“Once you have one gold medal, two gold medals, everything change. That is my experience.”

And if anyone knows how to bring about change, as difficult as the process sometimes is, it is the guy who took a scrub brush to a soiled AIBA. Then again …

“In the end, the bureaucracy wins out. You can’t beat City Hall,” Teddy Atlas, who called the bouts for NBC-TV at the London Olympics, earlier this year said of his doubts that the situation has changed all that much. “The same old crap goes on and on and on. Olympic boxing has become a joke. It’s not even relevant any more. The scoring is ludicrous. You see a guy from Japan drop a guy from Azerbaijan seven times and he still loses the fight … I mean, come on.”

Dr. Wu hears the complaints and he acknowledges that much work still needs to be done. In the 2016 Olympics, three of the five assigned judges for any bout will be randomly selected by a computer and their only their scores will be tabulated. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s better than what had been in place. And judges and referees whose work is suspect can expect to be weeded out.

Virgets said there always will be controversial decisions in Olympic boxing, because opinions will differ on the outcome of any match that is subjectively scored. But he pointed out to the enthusiasm he witnessed during the first women’s boxing competition as proof that the sport remains alive and relatively well at the Olympic level.

“Every single session sold out, in a venue with 5,400 seats,” Virgets recalled. “it was one of the toughest tickets to get. During the finals, the decibel level was, like, 10 times that of a jet plane taking off. An incredible atmosphere.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Philly’s Jesse Hart Continues His Quest plus Thoughts on Tyson-Paul and ‘Boots’ Ennis

Published

23 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Luis A. Cortes III

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Jesse Hart (31-3, 25 KOs) returns to the ring tomorrow night (Friday, Nov. 22) on a Teflon Promotions card at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. During a recent media workout for the show, which will feature five other local fighters in separate bouts, Hart was adamant that fighting for the second time this year at home will only help in his continuing quest to push towards a second chance at a world championship. “Fighting at home is always great and it just makes sense from a business standpoint since I already have a name in the sport and in the city,” said Hart (pictured on the left).

Hart’s view of where his career currently resides in relation to the landscape in the light heavyweight division leads you to believe that, at the age of 35, Hart is realistic about how far he can go before his career is over.

“Make good fights, win those fights, fight as much as I can and stay busy, that’s the way the light heavyweight division won’t be able to ignore me,” he says. Aside from two losses back in 2017 and 2018 to current unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez at super middleweight, Hart’s only other defeat was to Joe Smith during Smith’s most successful portion of his career.

When attempts to make fights with (at the time) up-and-coming prospects like Edgar Berlanga and David Benavidez were denied with Hart being viewed as the typical high risk-low reward opponent, it was time to find another way. So, Hart decided to stay local after splitting with Top Rank Promotions post-surgery to repair his longtime right-hand issues and hooked up with Teflon Promotions, an upstart company that is the latest to take on the noble endeavor of trying to return North Broad Street and Atlantic City to boxing prominence.

In essence, it is a calculated move that is potentially a win-win situation for all parties. Continued success for Hart along with some of the titles at light heavyweight eventually being released from Artur Beterbiev’s grasp due to outside politics, and Jesse Hart just may lift up Teflon Promotions into a major player on the regional scene.

Tickets for Friday’s show are available on Ticketmaster platforms.

As we entered November, a glance at the boxing schedule made me wonder if it was possible for the sport to have a memorable month — one that could shine a light forward in boxing’s ongoing quest to regain relevance in today’s sports landscape. Having consecutive weekends with events that could spark interest in the pugilistic artform and its wonderful characters was what I was hoping for, but what we got instead was more evidence that boxing isn’t immune to modern business practices landing a one-two punch on the action both inside and outside of the ring.

Jaron “Boots” Ennis was expected to make a statement in his rematch with Karen Chukhadzian on Nov. 9, a statement to put the elite level champions around his weight class on notice. What we witnessed, however, was more evidence of how current champions in their prime can be hampered by having to navigate a business that functions through the cooperation of independent contractors. Ennis got the job done – he won – but it was a lackluster performance.

It’s time for Ennis to fight the fighters we already thought we would have seen him fight by now and I do believe there is some truth to Ennis rising to the occasion if there was a more noteworthy name across the ring.

—

Some positives emerged from the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul event the following week. Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor, and women’s boxing are finally getting the public recognition they deserve. Mario Barrios’s draw against the tough Abel Ramos, also on the Netflix broadcast, was an action-packed firefight. So, mainstream America and beyond got to witness actual fights before being subjected to Paul’s latest circus.

Unfortunately for fans, but fortunately for Paul, the lone true boxing star in the main event dimmed out from an athletic standpoint decades ago. In this instance modern business practices allowed for a social media influencer to stage his largest money grab from a completely unnuanced public.

As Paul rose to the ring apron from the steps and looked around “Jerry’s World,” taking in the moment, it reminded me of an actual fighter when they’re about to enter the ring taking in the atmosphere before they risk their lives after a lifetime of dedication to try and realize a childhood dream. In this case though, this was a natural-born hustler realizing as he made it to the ring apron that his hustle was likely having its moment of glory.

In boxing circles, Jake Paul is viewed as a “necessary evil.” What occurs in his fights are merely an afterthought to the spectacle that is at the core of the social media realm that birthed him. Hopefully the public learned from the atrocity that occurred once the exhibition started that smoke and mirrors last for only so long. Hopefully Paul’s moment of being a boxing performer and acting like a true fighter comes to its conclusion. But he isn’t going away anytime soon, especially since his promotional company is now in bed with Netflix.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: Oscar Collazo, Reimagining ‘The Ring’ Magazine and More

Published

3 days ago

November 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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With little boxing activity over the next two weekends, there’s no reason to hold off anointing Oscar Collazo the Fighter of the Month for November. In his eleventh pro fight, Collazo turned heads with a masterful performance against previously undefeated Thammanoon Niyamtrong, grabbing a second piece of the title in boxing’s smallest weight class while ending the reign of the sport’s longest-reigning world title-holder. The match was on the undercard of the Nov. 16 “Latino Night” show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia headlined by the cruiserweight tiff between Mexico’s Zurdo Ramirez and England’s Chris Billam-Smith.

Collazo was a solid favorite, but no one expected the fight would be as one-sided. Collazo put on a clinic, as the saying goes. He took the starch out of Niyamtrong with wicked body punches before ending matters in the seventh. A left uppercut sent the Thai to the canvas for the third time and the referee immediately stepped in and stopped it.

Collazo, wrote Tris Dixon, “dissected and destroyed a very good fighter.” Indeed. A former Muay Thai champion, Niyamtrong (aka Knockout CP Freshmart) brought a 25-0 record and was making the thirteenth defense of his WBA strap.

A Puerto Rican born in Newark, Jersey, Oscar Collazo turned pro after winning a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American games in Lima, Peru. He was reportedly named after Oscar De La Hoya (we will take that info with a grain of salt), names Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon as a mentor and is co-promoted by Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto.

Collazo, 27, won the WBO version of the 105-pound title in his seventh pro fight with a seven-round beatdown of Melvin Jerusalem. He won a world title faster than any Puerto Rican boxer before him.

His goal now, he says, is to become a unified champion. He would be the first from the island in the modern era. Although Puerto Rico has a distinguished boxing history – twelve Boricua boxers are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame — there hasn’t been a fully unified champion from Puerto Rico since the WBO came along in 1988.

The other belt-holders at 105 are the aforementioned Jerusalem (WBC) and his Filipino countryman Melvin Taduran (IBF). Both won their belts in Japan with upsets of the Shigeoka brothers, respectively Yudai (Jerusalem) and Ginjiro (Taduran). Collazo would be a massive favorite over either.

A far more attractive fight would pit Collazo against two-time Olympic gold medalist Hasanboy Dusmatov. In theory, this would be an easy fight to make as the undefeated Uzbek trains in Indio, California, a frequent stomping ground of Collazo’s co-promoter Oscar De La Hoya who had a piece of the action when Dusmatov made his pro debut in Mexico. However, it’s doubtful that Dusmatov’s influential advisor Vadim Kornilov would let him take such a treacherous fight until the match-up had been properly “marinated,” by which time they both may be competing in a higher weight class. The Puerto Rican, who began his pro career at 110, is big for the 105-pound division notes the noted boxing historian Matt McGrain who is partial to the little guys.

—

Outside the ropes, the big news in boxing in November was the news that The Ring magazine had been sold to Turki Alalshikh. The self-acclaimed Bible of Boxing, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2022, was previously owned by a subsidiary of Oscar De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy Enterprises, which acquired the venerable publication in 2007. Alalshikh purportedly paid $10 million dollars.

Alalshikh, the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, confirmed the sale on social media on Monday, Nov. 11.

“Earlier this week, I finalized a deal to acquire 100% of The Ring Magazine, and I want to make a few things clear,” he said. “The print version of the magazine will return immediately after a two year hiatus and it will be available in the US and UK markets. The magazine will be fully independent, with brilliant writers and focusing on every aspect in the sport of boxing. We will continue to raise the prestige of The Ring Titles, and plans are already underway to have a yearly extravagant awards ceremony to celebrate the very best in the boxing industry.”

Alalshikh, blessed with an apparently unlimited budget, is already the most powerful man in the sport and more than a few concerns have been raised about his latest venture, especially in light of an incident involving prominent British scribe Oliver Brown.

Brown, the chief sports writer for the Telegraph who had previously covered three of Tyson Fury’s fights in Saudi Arabia, had his credential pulled for the Joshua-Dubois show at Wembley Stadium after calling the event “a grisly conduit for glorifying the Saudi regime.”

“I frankly do not trust Alalshikh to keep his personal aims from influencing the publication’s content,” says boxing writer Patrick Stumberg. One thing is certain: So long as the publication remains in the hands of the Saudis, the word “sportswashing” will never appear in the pages of The Ring magazine.

The Ring is the second major online boxing magazine to change hands this year. In February, Boxing Scene, one of the most heavily-trafficked sites in the ecosystem, was sold to Canadian-American entrepreneur Garry Jonas, best known as the founder of ProBox, a promotional entity headquartered in Plant City, Florida.

—

Mike Tyson’s showing against Jake Paul was mindful of something that Jimmy Cannon once wrote: “…the flesh was corrupted by time. The mind operated as if it was in another man’s head…the talent has been contaminated by age.”

Cannon was describing Joe Louis in Louis’s farewell fight against Rocky Marciano.

True, Jake Paul is no Rocky Marciano. To include their names in the same sentence borders on sacrilege. But the fabled Brown Bomber was 37 years old when he was rucked into retirement by Marciano on that October night at Madison Square Garden. At age 58, Mike Tyson was old enough to be Joe Louis’s father and yet human lemmings by the thousands couldn’t resist betting on him.

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The Hauser Report: Some Thoughts on Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul

Published

5 days ago

November 17, 2024

Thomas Hauser

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Jake Paul boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday night. The bout, streamed live on Netflix, was one of the most-watched fights of all time and, in terms of the level of competition, boxing’s least-consequential mega-fight ever.

We’re living in a golden age for spectator sports. Sports generate massive amounts of money from engaged fan bases and are more popular now than ever before. Today’s athletes are more physically gifted, better conditioned, and more skilled than their predecessors. Their prowess is appreciated and understood by tens of millions of fans.

Not so for boxing. For the sweet science, this is an era of “fools’ gold.” Yes, fighters like Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford, and Naoya Inoue bring honor to the sport. But boxing’s fan base has dwindled to the point where most people have no idea who the heavyweight champion of the world is. The sport’s dominant promoter has a business model that runs hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the red. And most fights of note are contested behind a paywall that shrinks the fan base even more. Few sports fans understand what good boxing is.

Mike Tyson is 58 years old. Once upon a time, he was the most destructive boxer in the world and “the baddest man on the planet.” Prior to last Friday night, he hadn’t fought in nineteen years and hadn’t won a fight since 2003.

Jake Paul is a 27-year-old social media personality who wasn’t born when Tyson lost his aura of invincibility at the hands of Buster Douglas. Paul began boxing professionally three years ago and, before fighting Tyson, had compiled a 10-1 (7 KOs) record against carefully chosen opponents.

Netflix has roughly 283 million subscribers globally, 84 million of them in North America. Recently, it made the decision to move into live sports. On December 25, it will stream the National Football League’s two Christmas games on an exclusive basis.

Netflix took note of the fact that Tyson’s 2020 exhibition against Roy Jones drew 1.6 million pay-per-view buys and concluded that Tyson-Paul had the potential to be the most-viewed fight of all time. It purchased rights to the fight as an attention grabber and subscription seller for (a best-estimate) $40 million.

Tyson-Paul was originally scheduled for July 20. A compliant Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations sanctioned the bout as an official fight, not an exhibition. In deference to Tyson’s age, the fighters agreed that the match would be contested over eight two-minute rounds (women’s rules) with 14-ounce gloves (heavyweight gloves normally weigh ten ounces).

But on May 26, Tyson became nauseous and dizzy while on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles and needed medical assistance for what was later described as a bleeding ulcer. The fight was rescheduled for November 15. Later, Tyson described the incident on the plane as follows: “I was in the bathroom throwing up blood. I had, like, eight blood transfusions. The doctor said I lost half my blood. I almost died. I lost 25 pounds in eleven days. Couldn’t eat. Only liquids. Every time I went to the bathroom, it smelled like tar. Didn’t even smell like shit anymore. It was disgusting.”

Does that sound like a 58-year-old man who should be fighting?

As Eliot Worsell noted, Tyson-Paul contained all the elements of a successful reality show. “There are for a start,” he wrote, “celebrities involved, two of them. One is ‘old famous’ and the other ‘new famous’ and both bring large audiences with them. They need only tap something on their phone to guarantee the entire world pays attention. And that, in this day and age, is all you really need to green light a project like this.”

But Worsell added a word of caution, observing, “This has been the story of Jake Paul’s pro boxing career to date; one of smoke and mirrors, one of sycophants telling him only what he wants to hear. He has been fed a lie just as Mike Tyson is now being fed a lie, and on November 15 they will both play dress-up and be watched by millions. They will wear gloves like boxers and they will move like boxers – one hampered in this quest by old age and the other by sheer incompetence – and they will together make ungodly sums of money.”

There was early talk that 90,000 fans would jam AT&T Stadium on fight night. Initially, ticket prices ranged from $381 to $7,956. And those prices were dwarfed by four tiers of VIP packages topped by a two-million-dollar “MVP Owner’s Experience” that included special ringside seating at the fight for six people, luxury hotel accommodations, weigh-in and locker room photo ops, boxing gloves signed by Tyson and Paul, and other amenities.

But by Monday of fight week, ticket prices had dropped to as little as $36. Ringside seats were available for $900. And the press release announcing the eventual MVP Owner’s Experience sale backtracked a bit, saying the package was “valued at $2 million” – not that the actual sale price was $2 million. It also appeared that the purchase price included advertising for the law firm that purchased the package since the release proclaimed, “Just as every fighter in the ring stands to represent resilience, grit, and the pursuit of victory, TorkLaw stands in the corner of the people, fighting for justice and empowering those who need it most.”

That said, the fight drew 72,300 fans (inclusive of giveaway tickets) to AT&T Stadium. And the live gate surpassed $18 million making it the largest onsite gate ever in the United States for a fight card outside of Las Vegas. More than 60 million households watched the event live around the world.

The undercard featured a spirited fight between Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos that ended in a draw. Then came the second dramatic showdown between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Taylor-Serrano II was for all four major sanctioning body 140-pound belts. Two years ago, Katie and Amanda did battle at Madison Square Garden on a historic night that saw Taylor emerge with a controversial split-decision win. Katie is now 38 years old and her age is showing. Amanda is 36. Taylor was an early 6-to-5 betting favorite in the rematch but the odds flipped late in Serrano’s favor.

Amanda began Taylor-Serrano II in dominating fashion and wobbled Katie just before the bell ending round one. That set the pattern for the early rounds. Serrano looked like she could hurt Taylor, and Taylor didn’t look like she could hurt Serrano.

Then in round four, Serrano got hurt. A headbutt opened a gruesome gash on her right eyelid. As the bout progressed, the cut became more dangerous. From an armchair perspective, it looked as though the fight should have been stopped and the result determined by the judges’ abbreviated scorecards. But the ring doctor who examined Serrano allowed it to continue even though the flow of blood seemed to handicap Amanda more and more with each passing round.

In round eight, referee Jon Schorle took a point away from Taylor after the fourth clash of heads that he thought Katie had initiated. By then, Serrano’s face resembled a gory Halloween mask and the bout had turned into a non-stop firefight. Each woman pushed herself as far as it seemed possible to go.

In the eyes of most observers, Serrano clearly won the fight. This writer scored the bout 96-93 in Amanda’s favor. Then the judges had their say. Each one favored Taylor by a 95-94 margin.

“My God!” blow-by-blow commentator Mauro Ranallo exclaimed after the verdict was announced. “How does one rob Amanda Serrano after a performance like that?”

In keeping with the hyperbole of the promotion, one might say that it was the most-watched ring robbery (although not the worst) in boxing history.

CompuBox is an inexact tabulation. But there’s a point at which the numbers can’t be ignored. According to CompuBox, Serrano outlanded Taylor in nine of ten rounds with an overall 324-to-217 advantage in punches landed.

From a boxing standpoint, Taylor-Serrano II made the evening special. Casual fans who don’t know much about the sweet science saw a very good fight. But they also saw how bad judging undermines boxing.

Meanwhile, as good as Taylor-Serrano II was, that’s not what Netflix was selling to the public. Jake Paul’s most recent events had engendered disappointing viewer numbers. This one was a cultural touchstone because of Tyson.

Paul has worked hard to become a boxer. In terms of skills, he’s now a club fighter (which is more than 99.9 percent of the population could realistically dream of being). So, what happens when a club fighter fights a 58-year-old man who used to be great?

Jack Johnson fought until the age of 53, losing four of his last six bouts. And the two he won were against opponents named Rough House Wilson (who was disqualified in what would be his only recorded professional fight) and Brad Simmons (who was barred from fighting again in Kansas because he was believed to have thrown the fight against Johnson).

Larry Holmes fought until age 52, knocking out 49-year-old Mike Weaver at age 51 and winning a unanimous decision over Eric Esch (aka Butterbean) in his final bout.

Paul was a 2-to-1 betting favorite. Serious PED testing for the fight was a murky issue but seems to have been minimal. Taylor and Serrano underwent VADA testing in advance of their bout. Tyson and Paul didn’t.

Tyson weighed in for the contest at 228.4 pounds; Paul at 227.2 (well over his previous high of 200). Following the weigh-in, Mike and Jake came face to face for the ritual staredown and Mike slapped Jake. But the incident was self-contained with no ripple effect and had the feel of a WWE confrontation.

That raised a question that was fogging the promotion: “Would Tyson vs. Paul be a ‘real’ fight or a pre-arranged sparring session (which was what Tyson vs. Roy Jones appeared to be)?”

That question was of particular note because sports betting is legal in 38 states and 31 of them were allowing wagers on the fight.

Nakisa Bidarian (co-founder of Paul’s promotional company) sought to lay that issue to rest, telling ESPN, “There’s no reason for us to create a federal fraud, a federal crime. These are pro fights that consumers are making legal bets on. We have never and we’ll never do anything that’s other than above board and one hundred percent a pro fight unless we come out clearly and say, ‘Hey, this is an exhibition fight that is a show.'”

Tyson looked old and worried during his ring walk and wore a sleeve on his right knee. The crowd was overwhelmingly in his favor. But it’s an often-repeated truism that the crowd can’t fight. And neither could Mike.

Once upon a time, Tyson scored nine first-minute knockouts in professional fights. Not first-round. First-minute.

Against Paul, “Iron Mike” came out for round one as hard as he could (which wasn’t very hard) while Jake kept a safe distance between them. Then Tyson tired and took all the air out of the fight. By round three, he was in survival mode with his head tucked safely behind his 14-ounce gloves. And Jake didn’t have the skills to hurt him.

The CompuBox numbers favored Paul by a 78-to-18 margin in punches landed. In other words, Tyson landed an average of two punches per round. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73, 79-73 in Jake’s favor. It was a “real” fight but a bad one.

“I love Mike Tyson,” Terence Crawford posted on X afterward. “But they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash.”

Prior to the bout, Tris Dixon wrote, “Tyson-Paul is a weird event, and I can’t think of anything even remotely like it in terms of the level of fighters, celebrity, and their ages. The event is unique, and morally and ethically it is questionable. It is a cynical cash grab. I can’t see it being particularly entertaining as a high-level sporting event. But I’m sure once it starts you won’t be able to take your eyes off it.”

All true. But let’s remember that there was a time when Mike Tyson was universally recognized as the best fighter in the world. Not many people in history have been able to say that.

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Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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