Mike Tyson and Jake Paul transcend the sport with epic event

Father Time remained undefeated as the legendary former undisputed heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson learned the hard way in a near-shut decision loss to Jake Paul in a global spectacle at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. 

The 27-year-old and fresher Paul easily defeated the 58-year-old Tyson in the main event of the Most Valuable Promotions card, the first live sports event on Netflix. Paul won 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73 in a fight that was eight two-minute rounds instead of the standard three, an accommodation to Tyson's age, and they also wore 14-ounce gloves instead of the 10-ounce gloves usually used in a heavyweight fight. 

The fight drew a crowd of 72,300 at the Dallas Cowboys home stadium, making it the second-largest United States of America indoor attendance for a boxing match. Many were hoping Tyson could somehow turn back the hands of time. While he looked in excellent condition for a man pushing 60, he had nothing left, which was no surprise because he retired in 2005 after the loss to Kevin McBride. 

The rousing first fight in the April 2022 battle between then-undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, the featherweight champion and moving in weight, was the greatest female fight of all time. 

Fast forward two and a half years later, this one lived up to the first as they produced another epic fight that would take place alongside the first, which was a legendary night in women’s boxing. 

Taylor remains the undisputed super lightweight champion of the world after she narrowly beat Serrano in one of the most brutal and all-out war women’s fights of all time. The blood-soaked epic between these two resulted in Serrano with a horrific and grotesque cut to the right eye, which occurred from an accidental headbutt in the sixth round. All three judges scored the bout 95-94, which was not without controversy as Taylor was warned twice for excessive use of her head, and she had a point deducted in the eighth round. 

The courageous, fiery and resolute Serrano, if given the nod, would have been a worthy winner, but Taylor showed incredible willpower and skill to finally prevail. Taylor and Serrano are, without doubt, both future Hall of Famers of the sport, and they will surely demand enough to see the trilogy despite Taylor coming out the victor in the first two contests.

WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios retained his title with a draw against Abel Ramos in a hard-hitting fight where both fighters were knocked down during the fight. Ramos went down in the second but came back stronger as Barrios took control early in the fight, hurting him in the sixth round. Barrios won on one card 116-110, Ramos won given the nod on one judge scorecard 114-112, and the other judge had it even 113-113. 

The event, despite many on social media stating issues with connection and buffering issues, at some stage throughout the card of Netflix, was a massive global success, with reportedly 50 million households tuning in worldwide to watch the co-main event and over 60 million households for the main event. Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisia Bidarian stated on the broadcast that this will be the first of many events shown on Netflix.