Ten Notable Boxers From Nebraska Not Named Terence Crawford

Published

7 years ago

August 10, 2017

Terence Crawford meets Namibia’s Julius Indongo at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 19th on ESPN. At stake are all the meaningful belts in the 140-pound division and for Crawford something more – a chance to cement his status as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.

Regardless of whether he wins or loses or what he accomplishes in the next few years, Omaha’s Crawford will reign supreme as the best boxer to emerge from the state of Nebraska. Granted, there isn’t a whole lot of competition. The Cornhusker State, historically rural, lacks the demographic components one associates with a high incidence of prizefighters. However, there have been some very solid practitioners of the manly art with Nebraska ties and with Crawford riding so high, now would seem to be a good time to excavate them from the dustbin of history and acknowledge them.

Here are ten notable boxers who sprung from the soil of Nebraska. They are listed in order of notability, needless to say a subjective exercise.

Ace Hudkins, Valparaiso (68-20-13, 25 KOs)

Before Terence Crawford arrived on the scene, Ace Hudkins was unimpeachably the best boxer spawned in the Cornhusker State.

Born in Valparaiso, Hudkins made his pro debut in Lincoln in 1922 at age 16 and fought all over Nebraska during his tenderfoot days, appearing in such burgs as Alliance, Bridgeport, Central City, McCook, Tecumseh, and Wahoo. Twelve bouts into his pro career his record stood at 3-3-6, hardly the template of a man who would go on to become one of the most celebrated boxers of his era. But Hudkins got better as the competition got stiffer and became a big box office attraction in New York and Los Angeles.

Paul Gallico, one of America’s most well-known sportswriters, about used up all the adjectives in his knapsack when he wrote that Hudkins was “tough, hard, mean, cantankerous, combative, fast, courageous and filled at all times with bitter and flaming lust for battle.” He might have added that the Nebraska Wildcat, as he was dubbed, wasn’t averse to bending the Queensberry rules.

In 1928, Hudkins challenged middleweight champion Mickey Walker at Comiskey Park, the home of the Chicago White Sox. Walker, who would be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990, won a split decision, but the consensus was that Hudkins was robbed. The multitude, which watched the fight in a driving rain, booed loudly when the verdict was announced. The rematch the next year in Los Angeles, which Walker won fairly, set a California record for gate receipts that stood for eighteen years.

Hudkins, who reportedly retired a millionaire, invested his ring earnings wisely. With several of his brothers he ran a thriving California company that leased horses and buckboards and such to producers of movie and TV westerns. He died in 1973 in Hollywood at age sixty-seven after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Ed “Bearcat” Wright (70-24-19, 42 KOs)

Born in 1897 in Brazoria, Texas, Wright represented Omaha throughout a career that lasted from 1919 to 1936. While still a raw novice he had four fights with venerable Sam Langford, the legendary Boston Tar Baby. There was an extenuating circumstance. Nebraska’s ban on interracial matches wasn’t repealed until 1923.

Wright likely had many more fights than those which have been documented. And don’t be fooled by his record. In his day, men of his hue had to “do business” to put food on the table. He was stopped in four rounds by future heavyweight champion Primo Carnera at Omaha’s minor league baseball park in 1932, but the outcome was almost certainly prearranged.

Wright had 30 fights in Nebraska rings and fought three other former or future world champions (Jack Johnson, Mickey Walker, and Max Baer). His son, also known as Bearcat Wright, was 8-0 as a pro boxer and had numerous regional and tag team titles bestowed upon him as a professional wrestler.

Luther McCarty (19-4-2, 15 KOs)

The White Hope Era paralleled the heavyweight title reign of Jack Johnson which lasted from Dec. 26, 1908 to July 4, 1915. The Caucasian hopefuls that tumbled out of the chute were a motley lot, but McCarty was legit.

Depending on the source, McCarty was born on a farm 30 miles southwest of Lincoln, on a ranch near McCook, or in a hollow somewhere in Hitchcock County. We’ll take it on faith that he was actually born in Nebraska and had an emotional tie to the state.

It appears that McCarty was left to his own whiles at a very young age, whereupon he bummed around the country taking odd jobs while sating his wanderlust. He was in his late teens when he came to the fore in Los Angeles. De Witt Van Court, one of America’s foremost boxing authorities, asserted that he showed considerably more promise than former champions Jim Corbett and Jim Jeffries at the same age.

McCarty died in the ring in 1913 at age twenty-one in Calgary, Alberta, in the first defense of his White Heavyweight Title. The punch that felled him didn’t appear to pack much force, but it fractured his neck. He never fought in Nebraska but engaged in 4-round exhibitions with his traveling foil in opera houses in Lincoln and Omaha.

Ron Stander (38-21-3, 29 KOs)

During his fighting days, Stander hung his hat across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs, Iowa; hence his nickname, the Bluffs Butcher. But Stander trained in Omaha, had twenty-six fights in Omaha, and settled in Omaha after leaving the sport.

In his 10th pro fight Stander knocked out Earnie Shavers, in hindsight a monster upset as Shavers came to be recognized as one of the hardest punchers in the history of the heavyweight division.

Stander’s record stood at 23-1-1 when he challenged Smokin’ Joe Frazier for the world heavyweight title at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in 1972 in what arguably ranks as the biggest single day non-football sporting event in the history of the Cornhusker State. He lasted only four rounds, but went out on his shield.

Art Hernandez, Sidney (46-20-2, 13 KOs)

The second oldest of the four fighting Hernandez brothers, the late Art Hernandez won five Nebraska Golden Gloves titles before turning pro in 1961. The former Sidney, Nebraska schoolboy had twenty fights in Omaha rings and fought extensively overseas, including five trips to France.

In 1964, Art Hernandez boxed legendary (albeit long-in-the-tooth) Sugar Ray Robinson to a draw at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. In 1969, he came out on the short end of a fight with former five-time world champion Emile Griffith, losing a split decision.

In retirement, Art Hernandez was the chief of security at Omaha’s Douglas County Hospital.

Ferd Hernandez, Sidney (35-10-4, 7 KOs)

The oldest of the brothers, Ferdinand “Ferd” Hernandez won the National Golden Gloves welterweight title in 1960 as a member of the Omaha team that won the team title over the favored Chicago contingent.

Ferd had three of his first five pro fights in Omaha before being lured away by the siren song of Las Vegas. In 1965 he won a 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson. Late in his career he went the distance with future Hall of Famers Nino Benvenuti and Luis Rodriguez.

In retirement, Hernandez became a world-class referee. He refereed four world title fights including the 1975 bout between Muhammad Ali and Ron Lyle. He died in 1996 at his brother Art’s home in Omaha at age fifty-five.

(Note: Dale Hernandez, the youngest of the fighting Hernandez brothers, had the most natural talent. Unlike his brothers, he could knock a man out with one punch. He isn’t included here because he was born and raised in Pierre, South Dakota.)

Carl Vinciquerra, Omaha (45-5-5, 25 KOs)

Vinciquerra took a leave from Creighton University where he was the starting fullback on the varsity football team to pursue his dream of Olympic glory. He represented the U.S. in the light heavyweight division at the 1936 Berlin games after winning a National Golden Gloves title.

Vinciquerra had most of his early fights in Chicago but had 16 fights in Omaha rings where he scored three wins over his former Creighton teammate and amateur rival Paul Hartnek.

Vince Foster, Omaha (30-4-1, 19 KOs)

A 1946 Midwest Golden Gloves champion, Foster, a welterweight, made a big splash in his debut as a Madison Square Garden headliner, overwhelming rugged 54-fight veteran Tony Pellone en route to a seventh round stoppage. “It was the most exciting victory scored in the Garden since Sandy Saddler’s knockout of Willie Pep in October (of the previous year),” said the ringside correspondent for the Associated Press.

Half Irish and half Native American, Foster was here and gone in a flash. In his next outing at New York City’s temple of fistiana, he was knocked out in the opening round by future world title challenger Charley Fusari. Two months later, he died when his car plowed into the back of a cattle truck in Pipestone, South Dakota, where he was visiting his two half-siblings who were enrolled in the Santee Sioux Indian boarding school. Akin to the ill-fated Luther McCarty, he was only 21 years of age.

Glen Lee, Edison (56-20-5, 22 KOs)

Born in the flyspeck village of Edison, not far from Grand Island which he eventually called home, Lee, a welterweight, made his pro debut in Omaha in 1933 and had thirteen of his first twenty-one fights in Nebraska rings before heading west where he became a popular attraction at LA’s Olympic Auditorium.

His career was winding down when he fought a rubber match with the ultra-talented Ceferino Garcia on Garcia’s home turf in Manila. Lee was TKOed in the 13th frame in what is recognized as the first world title fight ever held in the Philippines.

Lee’s younger brother Don Lee was a welterweight contender during the 1940s.

Morrie Schlaifer, Omaha, (49-40-6, 25 KOs)

Before he regressed into a trial horse, Schlaifer was one rough customer. Active from 1920 through 1927, he fought all the top welterweights of his day. His best win came in 1925 when he stopped future welterweight champion Pete Latzo in the third round on Latzo’s turf in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (In a pro career that numbered 147 fights, Latzo was stopped only twice.)

Schlaifer holds the record for most fights in Nebraska (42). Thirty-nine of those fights were in Omaha.

NOTE: Records include newspaper decisions.

Honorable Mention: JOHNNY SUDENBERG – He lost his last 13 documented fights, plunging his ledger into the red, but the great Jack Dempsey, on his way up the ladder, found the Omaha Swede a tough nut to crack. They fought three times in bouts staged in Nevada mining camps. Dempsey won the last but the first two, both vicious encounters, were recorded as draws.

Honorable Mention: PERRY “KID” GRAVES – Hailing from Red Bluff in Cass County, near Plattsmouth, Graves laid claim to the world welterweight title in 1914 with a second round stoppage of five-time rival Johnny “Kid” Alberts (aka Albert Miskowitz) in Brooklyn. He continued fighting for 11 more years but never had another bout packaged as a title fight – such were the vagaries of his times.

Disqualified: MAX BAER — A murderous puncher and briefly the world heavyweight champion, the “Livermore Larruper” was born in Omaha but grew up on a ranch in Livermore, California, near Stockton, where he made his pro debut. He never fought in Nebraska.

Special Citation: BRUCE “THE MOUSE” STRAUSS — If Strauss had a business card, it likely read “have gloves, will travel.” During his 14-year career (1976-1989) the affable leather-pusher, born and bred in Omaha, fought in twenty-three states, five Canadian provinces, and eight foreign countries. Dubbed the Prince of Palookas by the celebrated sportswriter Rick Reilly, Strauss appeared on the David Letterman Show where he recounted the time that he was knocked out twice in one night, the second under the pretense of being his twin brother.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel.

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

Published

7 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 with his friend and training partner Joey Dawejko).

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

2 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

4 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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