Jake Paul’s slow transition from celebrity meme fighter to honest professional boxer appears to be at something of a midpoint. The man once best known for prank videos and Disney appearances has carved out a surprising career for himself as one of the biggest stars in combat sports. Never mind the fact that most of his bouts exist purely on the low end of pugilistic craft.
Notably, Paul has made his name picking off former MMA/UFC champions and title contenders and other celebrity athletes that want to try their hand in the boxing ring. He may not be a great boxer, but he’s put in more dedicated boxing training camps than the likes of Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren. That’s a path, however, that has left plenty of critics in its wake; fight fans that want to see Paul take on more ‘real boxers’ instead of moonlighting mixed martial artists.
Jake Paul to fight 35-year-old journeyman Ryan Bourland
It’s seemingly in answer to those critics that Jake Paul has selected his last two opponents. Back in December, the ‘Problem Child’ took on 35-year-old 10-1 can crusher Andre August, finishing the fight via KO in round 1. Now he’s announced a bout against Ryan Bourland on March 2nd.
Much like August, Bourland has a record that looks pretty on paper. He’s 17-2 as a pro, stretching all the way back to 2013. A closer look at his career however, provides a lot more evidence as to why he’s been selected for this task. First and foremost, Bourland has only fought once since 2018, a 2022 win against 4-6 Santario Martin. Second, his 17 wins include just four knockouts (never mind the six listed on the poster, which includes two retirement TKOs).
Not one of Bourland’s KO wins had a record over .500, two were debuting fighters that never competed again. Video of Bourland’s fight against Codale Ford in 2018 shows a fairly light-fisted, busy fighter who likes to lead and work in combination. Not un-technical, but much like his record would suggest, not dynamic or dangerous either.
Be careful what you wish for
It’s been said before (especially by Jake Paul to his detractors), but fighting former pro MMA fighters is honestly a lot more of a challenge than most boxers take on early in their journey. Despite the criticism that Paul had been avoiding real competition, relative to his skill level, he actually was picking some tough fights.
Now however, it seems he’s looking for a couple of really big paydays. A chance to step in the ring with a legit top-level boxing draw someday and maybe even fight for a belt. It all has the sound of a pipe dream, especially the parts where Paul starts claiming that he’ll challenge Canelo Alvarez. But if he’s ever going to do it, he needs to pad out his record, get in the rounds and the ring time and the wins. Something he can’t do fighting once or twice a year against whatever name free agent the UFC happens to cut loose.
Essentially he’s giving fans what they want. A chance to see him in action against real, life-long boxers. It just turns out that means fights that are a lot less competitive or interesting than taking on the likes of Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz in 10oz gloves.
Also on the card, Jake Paul client Amanda Serrano will defend her featherweight IBO, WBO, and WBA titles against Nina Meinke. Owner of the IBF intercontinental featherweight title, Meinke (18-3) is on a six fight winning streak. Serrano has won four fights in a row since losing to undisputed lightweight champion Kaite Taylor in a 2022 ‘superfight’ event at Madison Square Garden. Earlier in the night, WBO light flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez will take on Rene Santiago.
The UFC doesn’t take many weeks off these days. But one thing they’ve made a habit of in recent years is a willingness to let the holidays pass them by. No big New Years Eve cards, no Thanksgiving shows, no Christmas carnage.
In short, this holiday season, the other major players in the combat sports world have a shot at taking over the PPV market. Which should have made for a perfect showcase for Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder… if only they hadn’t tried to make boxing work purely for their own self interest.
I’m not going to stand here and say that MMA clearly occupies some kind of moral high ground these days when it comes to matchmaking. Hell, we’re still waiting for Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler (which increasingly looks unlikely to even make UFC 300), so there’s hardly room for mixed martial arts fans to talk about how Dana White & Co. make the fights fans want to see.
But for those still stuck in the narrative, then this past Saturday marked exactly the kind of dumb greed that has too often marred boxing’s landscape…
Deontay Wilder vs. Joshua Parker was a stereotypically cynical boxing script
Anyone would have to assume they’d be facing one another. The obvious fight to make for two top heavyweight talents looking to take over right at the end of 2023. They’d be dead wrong.
For assuredly asinine reasons, Joshua decided to take on Otto Wallin in the main event, while Wilder fought Joseph Parker in the co-main. Even the commentary team was convinced that the intention was for both men to pick up a victory before facing one another some time in 2024. A great plan if this had been pro wrestling and the outcomes had been fixed.
Sugar Ray Leonard once famously said “You don’t play boxing.” It was meant to be an admonishment to fans who underestimate the dangers of the fight game. But it should just as easily be a message for boxers themselves, to remind them that for all the gamification they may attempt, ultimately the ring doesn’t lie.
Judging in the squared circle may be famously corrupt, but the fight shows a person’s quality and Wilder absolutely had none of it against Parker in Saudi Arabia.
The ‘Bronze Bomber’ came out, draped in his crown, hoping to rebuild his reputation as the most notable American heavyweight boxer of the last 15 years. Looking the part of a bad, bad man.
A stain on Deontay Wilder’s legacy
Instead, he spent 10ish rounds on the back foot, hoping to one-shot his ultra durable opponent, who simply refused to be cowed by the 38-year-old’s impressive size and power. A miserable unanimous decision loss for Deontay Wilder that may very well spell the end to his time as a top PPV contender.
Our own Mookie Alexander put it best, noting that with the loss Wilder’s legacy seems sealed—both as an incredible, heavy-handed puncher and as “one of the all-time emptiest resumes for a long-reigning heavyweight boxing champion we’ve ever seen.”
Having won the WBC title back in 2015, Wilder defended his belt against the likes of Eric Molina, Johann Duhaupas, Artur Szpilka, Chris Arreola, Gerald Washington, Bermane Stiverne and a 40-year-old Luis Ortiz, before finally facing Tyson Fury in 2018. Outside of Fury it’s a ‘who’s that?’ lineup if ever there was one.
He drew against Fury in their first meeting, winning two more bouts (including a rematch against Luis Ortiz) before losing back-to-back rematches against the ‘Gypsy King’ in 2020-21. A victory over Robert Helenius in 2022 set Wilder up for what will now go down in history as an unfathomably pointless booking more than a year later.
It shouldn’t even need saying, but Anthony Joshua was RIGHT THERE. These men were competing at the same time, on the same card. With the talk being that a victory for both would see them face off against one another. A clear ‘just make the goddamn fight’ moment if ever there was one. But greed and pride ruled the day and now one of the biggest potential boxing bouts of the past decade has gone up in smoke. Nothing more than a mirage in the desert, fittingly.
Francis Ngannou wins again
If there’s any positive side to this entirely unnecessary fumble it has to be in the eyes of former UFC champion Francis Ngannou. Having made a huge splash in the heavyweight boxing market this past October with a heavily disputed loss to Tyson Fury, ever single mistake among the boxing elite can only be a win for the ‘Predator’ and his negotiating leverage.
Anthony Joshua had hoped to have a top drawing opponent in Deontay Wilder all set for his next bout. Wilder had hoped to rebuild his championship reputation with a soft booking on his way to a new title fight. Suddenly Joshua finds himself in need of a man that can get fans excited, and Wilder finds himself badly needing a high profile win.
Even if Ngannou fights neither of them ever, he has to look like a far more enticing matchup right now than he did last week. Especially given how readily Joshua had apparently dismissed the Cameroonian-born Frenchman just a couple months ago. And if that’s the case, then he has just that little be more to lean on when he goes to the bargaining table with Tyson Fury in the coming months. If Fury won’t pay up, there are other bookings to turn to.
Ultimately Wilder and Joshua did the unthinkable, they made Dana White look clever when he talks about how broken and greedy boxing can be as a business. A sorry state if ever there was one, on a weekend all set for both men to shine. The only thing we can hope for, as a result, is that the next time a big fight is staring one of them in the face, they decide to take it rather than betting their future away on a result they can’t guarantee.
But it wasn’t just the action inside the UFC Octagon that gave us our highs and lows for this week’s column. Rampage Jackson emerged with a surprise contribution. And, as ever, Jake Paul stayed making moves.
LOVE TO SEE IT
Bryce Mitchell thanks Josh Emmett
I’ll rarely ever be one to blame fighters for competing until the referee waves off the bout. MMA is, at its root, a sandbox/chaos sport. So many fighters on the borderline of losing consciousness have rallied back to win over their exhausted opposition—it’s not so much vicious to make sure the coffin nail is landed, it’s often smart.
That said, then, it’s also a great act of mercy when fighters decide that they don’t need to do more damage than they’ve already done. Mark Hunt had a career full of highlights that featured the ‘Super Samoan’ casually strolling away from his opponents as they crashed to the mat, unable to recover.
On Saturday night at UFC 296, Josh Emmett added to his own legacy with a crushing one-punch KO over Bryce Mitchell, sleeping ‘Thug Nasty’ less than two minutes into the first round. It was one of the filthiest walk-off knockouts I’ve seen in a minute.
“[Referee] Herb [Dean] was way behind me,” Emmett told MMA Fighting. “I could have hit [Mitchell] with several big shots on the ground, but there’s no need. At the end of the day, I want everyone to go home as safe as possible to their loved ones.”
Fortunately, despite the terrifying scene of Mitchell’s trip to the land wind and ghosts, it seems the Arkansas native is doing well a few days removed from his loss. Well enough even, to take some time to record a video message of thanks to the Team Alpha Male fighter for not doing more damage than was strictly necessary.
“I want to let you all know that I am so happy with Josh Emmett,” Mitchell revealed in a post on social media. “Right after he knocked me out, he could have followed up with hammerfists, and it probably would have killed me. He didn’t even follow up with anything.”
"He didn't even follow up with anything."
Bryce Mitchell appreciates Josh Emmett not doing unneeded damage after the KO at UFC 296 pic.twitter.com/cy5D3WySp8
“He was just happy with his knockout, and he walked away. And I’m so gracious for that, I will forever remember that. Thank you for not hitting me extra, Josh.”
Mitchell’s got plenty of weird stuff he gets into when given a camera and an audience, but this just seems like a real, nice wholesome MMA moment created by a single point of extreme violence and one fighter’s willingness to do just a little bit less than he could have.
Jake Paul gets with USA Boxing
Anyone familiar with my work knows I tend to run very hot and cold on Jake Paul. On the one hand, I think celebrity boxing is pretty harmless and he works a lot harder at it than most. On the other hand, I think a lot of his championing for causes has a hollow ring to it, and the lack of true talent he brings with him to is pretty undeniable.
That said, there’s one thing that absolutely can’t be denied: In today’s combat sports climate, Paul is a big star. He, KSI and Jake’s brother Logan have created a niche for bad-to-mid level fight cards, focused on street beefs, reputation bets, and dares, that are attracting young fans who otherwise might have little interest in high level pro boxing (or even sports in general).
It seems like the kind of track record to make Paul’s latest partnership an obvious and easy match. In a post to his Twitter account, Paul announced that he is joining forces with USA Boxing to promote the 2024 Olympic team.
Im honored to partner with USA Boxing as the 2024 Paris Olympics approach. I’ll be training with the Olympic squad in Colorado Springs this winter and accompanying them to Paris this July to amplify our country’s best amateur boxers.
Sure, it’s worth asking, is Olympics interest in such dire straights that it needs Jake Paul’s celebrity to give it a boost? To that, I can only say yes. Yes it is.
The last Olympics were crushingly poor at attracting an American audience and there’s plenty of criticism leveled at the IOC, that these days the games do more harm than good. Given current trends on Gen Z sports viewership interest overall, there seems to be a serious need for sports to capture youth audiences that increasingly see competitive athletics as outdated.
I’m sure that the Paris games will get more traction with US audiences than the Tokyo games, just through kinder time zones alone. And while I don’t necessarily feel like the Olympics as an industry needs championing, any extra shine and recognition these young athletes can get should be applauded.
Jake Paul is hardly an ideal spokesperson, but his fame has made him the best suited one available. The fact that he’s willing to try and make some good use of that is nice to see.
HATE TO SEE IT
UFC boss Dana White tries to retire Tony Ferguson
It should come as no surprise that Tony Ferguson still doesn’t sound very interested in retirement after taking his 7th straight UFC loss on Saturday night. Despite having failed to get his arm raised going back to the end of 2019, ‘El Cucuy’ has remained defiant in the face of criticism.
At UFC 296, the former interim lightweight champion looked another step older and another step slower trading shots with his least dangerous opponent in years before getting handily out-grappled for two rounds to close out the fight. After the loss, Ferguson took to social media with a brief message for fans.
“Love my fans and supporters,” Ferguson posted to his Instagram Stories (h/t MMA Fighting). “You are all f—ing fire. I met lots of you tonight, keep the faith MF’s. One foot in front of the other b—s. Remember what I said crew — Champ.”
Asked about Ferguson’s career at the UFC 296 post-event presser, Dana White gave his stock answer, whenever a former UFC star has found themselves in a late career skid.
“Listen, Tony’s been an absolute warrior and a dog in this sport,” White told the gathered media. “I don’t want to disrespect him by publicly talking about him retiring but I would love to see him retire. That’s really where my head’s at.”
Frankly, it’s all just so tired at this point. As fans it feels like we’ve been down this road with the UFC a dozen times now, whether it was with Chuck Liddell, Luke Rockhold, Matt Hughes, Anderson Silva, or Tyron Woodley just to name a few. If Ferguson is as set on continuing his career as he seems and if Dana White doesn’t want to see him fighting anymore, then they should part ways.
Personally, I’d love to see T-Ferg hang, ’em up. But we all know at this point how hard a job fighting is to quit. And while White clearly seems to feel he has some influence here, his history in these situations clearly shows otherwise. Not one of these fighters has talked kindly about Dana White’s interference in their careers. These men are competing well past the point of sense because it’s what they want, and they don’t take kindly to others meddling.
The UFC is right to want to get out of the Tony Ferguson business. But, if that’s the case they should stop dithering and be done with it. No ‘talks’, no ‘we’ll see’, no squeezing a name talent for every last bit of juice that can be wrung out of them just so the competition can’t. Treat these men like the independent contractors you claim they are. Let them go if you don’t want to keep them working.
Rampage Jackson ‘flat Earther’
There may be no easier conspiracy to disprove than the ‘flat Earth.’ Methods and mathematics for measuring the circumference and curvature of the planet are so simple and numerous that even thousands of years ago men were able to make exacting estimations as to its size and shape.
More than that, for the mathematically disinclined among us, anyone who’s been high enough up in the air on a plane or hot air balloon has had a chance to see how the earth curves. A person armed with enough money and gumption can even circumnavigate the globe with the use of a good map, all under their own power. No edges, no secret NASA bases, no optical illusions.
At some point in his life as a world traversing mixed martial artist and regularly working actor, it seems almost certain that former UFC champion Quinton Jackson has circled the earth, at least once. That hasn’t stopped ‘Rampage’ from joining those strange voices among us, however, who claim that the Earth is—despite mountains of evidence to the contrary—flat
“This is the thing about the whole ’round Earth/flat Earth’ thing, why do people care if people believe in the Earth the way Bible describes it?,” Jackson told a characteristically flabbergasted Brendan Schaub in a recent interview. “Why do people get so mad about that?”
“Why do people get mad at people if they just describe the Earth the way the oldest history book described it?”
“I do,” Rampage continued when asked if he thinks the Earth is flat. “I just don’t talk about it, because—something like Einstein said; saying, ‘To a dumb motherf—er, an ignorant motherf—er sounds dumb.'”
I can’t find that quote from Einstein, or even one that resembles it, so I have no clue what he’s talking about there. As for the Bible, though? Isaiah 40:22 includes this passage that Rampage seems to be referencing:
“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.”
One of many vague points that flat Earther’s have pointed to suggesting that the Earth is being described as a disk with a ‘firmament’ over the top of it, never minding that several other passages also leaned on describe the “four corners of the Earth” instead. Is it a circle, is it a square? Or is it allegorical language meant to impart lessons and values upon its reader and not a denial of critical thinking skills?
I don’t want to be the atheist guy that rants against religion, really. But even mainstream Christianity recognizes that the earth is a sphere. Christians have been to space, themselves, many times. What Jackson is leaning on here isn’t religion, it’s just laziness—as these guys found out for themselves…
Another week in the combat sports world means another week full of stories that make me full body cringe. Oh, and also a few that make me say ‘Aww, that’s nice.’
Readers may have noticed we’re trying a few new things over her at Bloody Elbow, in particular, getting away from the news grind. We want to give readers a more invested, focused vision of fight sports, rather than chasing multiple articles about every little bit of drama that hits the world wide web.
As such, here’s a handful of stories this week that actually made me feel something more than “okay, I guess…”
Love to see it
Belal Muhammad and Khamzat Chimaev find friendship
The latest iteration of the war between Israel and Palestine has been nothing short of a non-stop horror show. Constant reports of atrocities, murders, assaults, and an ever mounting death toll of Palestinian citizens as Israel wages a war through land and sky against a country that lacks clear military targets, or even a standing army.
In that kind of climate, it’s hard not to enjoy seeing a couple of the UFC’s own finding a little common ground in their shared support of Palestine. Khamzat Chimaev made headlines at UFC 294, with his post fight speech calling for peace and unity (while also offering to become a foot soldier in the war). It seems his message didn’t go unnoticed by Palestinian-American welterweight Belal Muhammad.
At one point, Muhammad had called for a fight with the Chechen, when he was still down at 170 lbs looking to make a title run. At this point, however, he’s just cheering ‘Borz’ on in his journey for MW gold.
“For me, it was obviously huge that he was posting about Palestine,” Muhammad said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “That’s my brother now. Like, if you’re supporting my people, we’re one. It’s all about being a Muslim and when one Muslim’s in pain, one Muslim’s hurting, you should be feeling the same pain, feeling the same hurt. I feel like we’ve got connected off of that.”
“It’s all about being a Muslim” – Belal Muhammad talks overcoming rivalry with Khamzat Chimaev due to shared concern for Palestinianshttps://t.co/sJWnIJZruk@ULTfightFANS#MMA#UFC
Belal Muhammad and Khamzat Chimaev's shared love for Palestine has transformed their relation… pic.twitter.com/4QWCBxfwmV
“I’m Team Khamzat. I hope he gets the 185-pound title. I hope he gets the title shot and inshallah, next year, it’ll be me at 170 champion, Islam at 155 champion, and Khamzat at 185 champion. We’ll be taking over.”
War will always divide people and tear bonds apart. It’s good to see that every now and then, amid the horror of it all, that it can bring a few people together too.
Colby Covington hates Sean Strickland
I’m not actually here to take sides in this war of words, but it’s nice to see that some things never change. Most notably that two edge-lords just can’t be friends. Covington and Strickland have no clear reason to dislike one another. They’re both into hard-line right-wing politics, they both have reputations for being secretly much nicer than they try to seem. And they both love to try and piss people off by saying whatever the first thing that comes to their mind is, in public.
It’s probably that last part that pulls these two away from one another. After all, nothing a loud angry guy hates more than to see someone else being loud and angry out ahead of them, stealing their thunder. But, what that has meant is that we’re going to get treated to a whole host of hilariously weird quotes between these two while they try to find ways to hate on one another that don’t reflect just as poorly on themselves.
In a recent interview with Code Sports, Colby Covington took a couple big swings at the middleweight champion. I’m still not sure what he’s trying to say here, but it makes me chuckle a lot, so I can’t help but be happy about it.
“He’s pretending to be everything he wishes I was,” Covington said of Strickland. “I’d love to slap Sean Strickland around. He’s just a pathetic excuse of a human being, the guy has literally no fricking IQ. The guy’s so f—ing stupid. The things he says, he needs to get his mouth wired shut and I’m the guy to do it. The UFC knows I’m the one that can end these guys that hate the company and they hate the world, so I would love to fight Sean Strickland.”
What that first sentence means, who knows? Does Strickland think that Covington is aggressive and opinionated, but actually Covington thinks he’s quiet and withdrawn? What are these qualities he feels distant from, but somehow reflected by? Whatever they are, Strickland already responded to these quotes over on his Twitter account, telling fans that the only thing Covington knows how to do “is call 911 ‘someone send help’.”
Keep it going guys, and someone bring me the popcorn.
Hate to see it
Claressa Sheilds viral video sensation
Leaked training footage is always bad news in the combat sports world. When people are taping what’s going on in sparring sessions and then releasing that footage to the public, it more than likely means someone is getting embarrassed.
Earlier in his UFC career, Conor McGregor made a habit of releasing a few clips ahead of his bouts, usually of him humiliating foes during sparring sessions. It’s a strategy Jake Paul has taken to for his boxing bouts as well. An easy way to get fans excited, but also an easy way to create bad blood with the people brought in to help them train.
Maybe, then, it’s no surprise that undisputed middleweight boxing champion Claressa Shields is not handling the emergence of a viral video that shows her getting dropped hard in the gym five years ago all that well. The video was posted by Shields’ then sparring partner Arturs Ahmetovs in response to a recent interview from the ‘GWOAT’ where she spoke about the incident, claiming that she had been dropped by an unnamed male boxer in sparring, after he had taken the padding out of his gloves.
‼️ Arturs Ahmetovs (6-1) has now posted this clip of himself flooring Claressa Shields in sparring in 2018. Shields responded: "He took padding out his gloves because I embarrassed earlier that week… For a male fighter to take the padding out, he’s a punk."
Ahmetov’s coach has absolutely denied the claim outright, while Shields says she didn’t talk about it (or report it) at the time, because she felt it would endanger a scheduled title fight. Considering that Shields has also claimed that she was ready to knife Ahmetov’s coach and has since called out pro boxer Rolly Romero to fight anywhere any time for his own comments about the incident, it doesn’t exactly seem like something she’s ready to keep all that cool about. But human nature never ceases to confound.
‼️ Claressa Shields ripping into Rolly Romero on Instagram live today after he responded to the clip of her being knocked down by Arturs Ahmetovs, who he beat in 2020: "I will whoop your ass. I will come to TMT gym and put my hands on you."
Whatever the truth in this dumb story might be, however, the lesson is clear. Don’t record sparring sessions. Don’t use sparring footage to try and humiliate someone. Maybe even just don’t talk about sparring at all. Ego maintenance is a core part of combat sports, and it makes a lot of athletes extremely thin skinned and defensive against any supposition that they might not actually be that big of a badass. Nobody comes out of this looking good.
Jake Paul: Real Boxer
I’ve tried to be awfully fair to Jake Paul’s boxing career. Not out of an abundance of enjoyment for his prank persona, or any kind of admiration for his hustle, but simply because he honestly seems like he’s trying pretty hard to make fighting work and to train hard to do it. Also because fight fans have hilariously outsized expectations.
The fact that Paul has beat a series of former MMA/UFC champions and faced a boxer in Tommy Fury who has a solid amount of high level training and resources behind him is, if we’re being real, a lot more than anyone should reasonably expect of a 20-something-year-old influencer on a vanity kick. Calls for him to face seasoned competition etc, generally ignore how little most boxers being groomed for greatness take on challenging fights early in their careers.
I can’t help feel a pang of empathy for Paul, following the smart route through these early years of his pugilistic entrepreneurship, only to be treated like he’s avoiding challenges.
That said, if we’re getting down to brass tacks, just because Paul is challenging himself and training hard doesn’t make what he’s doing not a vanity project. Jake Paul is very okay for a low-ceiling pro who started late. We’ve seen that in his fights with Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva, and that aforementioned Fury bout. Against people less prepared than him, he can squeeze out victories by starting fast, hitting hard, and staying alive late. Against people similarly (or more) experienced than him in the ring, his lack of speed, cardio, or ability to maintain form all become serious liabilities.
Currently, Paul has lined himself up to take on Andre August, a 35-year-old unknown with a shiny record and no quality competition to speak of. It’s a decent measuring stick fight. But what it’s measuring Paul for? Entirely ridiculous nonsense.
“I think the path that I’m on now tees me up in the future to fight Canelo,” Jake Paul explained in a recent interview on the MMA Hour (transcript via MMA Fighting). “It’s even just showing him that I can go 10 or 12 rounds with you, [that] I’ve done that with real, legitimate pro boxers and beat them. So when I beat these guys in the year or two to come—and continue to raise the level of opposition—I think me vs. Canelo becomes a really interesting fight.”
“And something that a lot of people would be like, ‘Oh, Jake’s going to get destroyed.’ But there’s that fun thing in your mind, the same thing with Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury. ‘Yeah, but he’s the bigger guy who has punching power!’ So it becomes this really fun, interesting fight that I think is historical, and Canelo has expressed interest in interviews, so I think we’re closer than we think.”
Nobody needs this. Not boxing fans, not Jake Paul fans, not even Jake Paul. The celebrity boxing business is one of trying to make wolf tickets reality. Selling fights nobody thinks will actually happen, and then actually putting them on. Getting influencers, non-combat athletes, MMA fighters, musicians, and c-tier celebrities to do more than just talk about how tough they are.
I get that Francis Ngannou pushed that mold to the limit with his bout against Tyson Fury, but that feels a lot more like lightning in a bottle than a roadmap for others to follow (especially because heavyweight is its own kind of circus). If Jake Paul’s goal is a fight with Canelo Alvarez, he might actually be able to put enough money on the table to make it happen. But the result will pretty certainly be some absolutely terrible ass kicking that none of us need to see.
We’re back again with another edition of Love/Hate to See It, the weekly editorial column that looks for the best of the best and the worst of the worst fight news each week.
Unsurprisingly, Conor McGregor is still making headlines in early December. The former UFC double-champ recently found himself in a spot of hot water, over anti-immigrant statements he made on social media. Now it seems like he might be preparing for a future political career. We’ve also got some good news though, in the form of boxing champ Amanda Serrano, who is looking to take a stand against at least one corner of her sport’s sexist governance when it comes to rules and regulations. So, let’s get into it…
Love to see it
Boxing champ Amanda Serrano vacates WBC title
In 2023 it seems positively archaic to see actual set policy that delineates treatment of men and women in a non-medical professional setting. Sure, we all know how institutional sexism can work (via wage suppression, maternity leave, hiring practices, etc.) even with the outward appearance of equality. But more than a century of battling for civil rights, feels like it should have rid the US of mandated segregation in the treatment of the sexes at the very least.
Sports, however, remain a notable bulwark against the march of progress.
In part that’s down to ongoing debates of opportunity and physical capacity. Can men and women cross-compete in disciplines that involve significant measure of physical gifts? Are sports more fair when women get to compete on their own platform apart from men?
While there may be room to argue those topics, there are still a few lasting pockets of good ol’ fashioned sexism like your great grandpappy used to make. None more so than women’s boxing.
Women’s boxing is an absolute joke and everyone knows it. An insistence from commissions on 10-round limits and two-minute rounds, compared to men getting 12, three-minute rounds has no medical grounding, no nod to fairness or comparative physicality. It purely boils down to a belief that women are capable of doing less work even within their own competitive arena.
As if the Olympics would hold the 100 yd. dash for men and the 80 yd. dash for women or if women’s soccer were played on a smaller field than men’s soccer just so they wouldn’t have to run as much. It’s patently absurd.
Which makes it great to see (now former) unified featherweight boxing champion Amanda Serrano take a meaningful stand against this kind of systematic double standard, by formally abandoning her WBC title.
“…I am the first undisputed female champion to fight 12×3 minute rounds, Serrano wrote in a post to her Instagram account.
“Moving forward if a sanctioning body doesn’t want to give me and my fellow fighters the choice to fight the same as the men, then I will not be fighting for that sanctioning body.
“The WBC has refused to evolve the sport for equality. So I am relinquishing their title.
“Thank You to the sanctioning bodies who have evolved for Equality!
“If you want to face me in the ring, you have a choice. I’ve made mine.“
Serrano made her 12-round/3-minute boxing debut just this past October, against Danila Ramos—defeating the Mexican fighter via unanimous decision to defend her WBA, IBF, WBO, and Ring title belts.
This latest statement comes alongside recent news that Serrano has signed a deal with the PFL to take part in the MMA promotion’s ‘Superfight’ PPV series. It’s unclear when or against whom Serrano might make her debut in the PFL cage. ‘The Real Deal’ has a 2-0-1 pro MMA record, compiled between 2018-21, under the Combate and iKON FF banners. I’m not at all sure how big a success Serrano’s MMA career will be going forward, but here’s hoping she can keep pushing for change on the boxing side of things.
Impa Kasanganay went from homelessness to $1M PFL tournament
Fighting is a strange thing to do professionally. Even the sport-ified version of it doesn’t tend to support too many pretenders. Some fighters over the years have claimed to hate it, almost all of them talk about the nerves and the anxiety and the low points; but it’s also clearly a bug that, once inside a person’s system is incredibly hard to get out.
Even the most financially well off fighters in the world tend to find themselves returning to the ring or the cage. Floyd Mayweather officially retired from boxing in 2017, he’ll look to return to action for his 8th exhibition booking on Superbowl weekend 2024. Conor McGregor made hundreds of millions of dollars selling whiskey alongside his highly profitable fighting career, but even he can’t seem to let it all go.
Despite long bouts of inactivity over the past seven years, McGregor is back in the USADA system, warming up for some kind of return to fighting on a UFC deal that will, no doubt, fail to net him anywhere close to the biggest fight purse he’s had in his career. It’s not the money, there’s just something about it that drives people.
That makes it especially heartening to see a story like Impa Kasanganay’s—a 29-year-old son of Congolese immigrants who earned degrees in Business Admin, Accounting, and Finance but found his true calling fist-fist fighting men in the Octagon. The result of that drastic and seemingly ill advised life choice? As Kasanganay recently revealed on the MMA Hour, after getting cut from the UFC in 2021 ‘Tshilobo’ found himself living out of his car.
“When I got to that car, it was the only place I could be peaceful, in that front seat,” Kasanganay said. “I would Instacart stuff to the gym, eat, but it was probably one of the best times in my life, too. I’d wake up at 5:30, get into the gym by 6 a.m., I was in the parking lot, so nobody could see me. Hop in the shower, brush my teeth, and I would start [figuring out] how can I reorganize myself. I started working in accounting again, but I made sure I never missed training, and get to stand before you as a champion, I never lost sight of the goal.
“It was just being patient. Being patient and getting reorganized. That’s what got me there, a lack of organization, a lack of patience, and now I’m at one of the better points of my life.”
After a year of living rough—including an apparent stint in a yurt out in the Florida Everglades—Kasanganay got the call to be in PFL’s 2023 light heavyweight season. Nine months later and he’s collected more than a million dollars in prize money with five straight wins to take the tournament crown.
“MMA is my ministry,” Kasanganay explained. “I love what I get to do, and it came down to me saying I’m going to trust God’s plan for my life. I really didn’t have any more money. I spent everything moving to Florida. Got a cool apartment, thought I was going to be in the UFC for the long haul. It wasn’t in God’s plan.
“I’m so grateful the UFC cut me. It became a blessing. Look where we are today.”
The combat sports world is full of tragedies. Fighters who bet it all on the idea that one day they’ll be champion, that one day they’ll win the big prizes, that all the damage and punishment absorbed over the years will pay off in the end. So often, that’s not the case. Always worth celebrating when someone takes the big gamble and walks away a winner.
Hate to see it
Arman Tsarukyan goes full petty
Arman Tsarukyan celebrates his win over Beneil Dariush. | Justin Renfroe / ZUMA Wire, IMAGO
It’s hardly news to any longtime MMA fans that for all their toughness in the cage, fighters can be remarkably thin skinned. After all, one of the main reason these people do what they do is because they actually like to fight. They are, by definition, not the kind of people who are going to walk away from a situation that might escalate to violence.
So it’s not all that surprising that Arman Tsarukyan got a bit hot under the collar when divisional rival Bobby Green had the Russo-Armenian catching strays in a recent interview. Green wanted to explain the kind of bouts he was looking to take at the top of the lightweight division and Tsarukyan’s name came to mind as one of the “boring” grinders he’d like to avoid.
That setup made it almost understandable (if still a little silly) that Tsarukyan got his entourage together and found Green at the fighter hotel for a little chat ahead of this past week’s UFC card. There were some words exchanged, some pushing and shoving—apparently Green and some of Tsarukyan’s teammates may have come to blows later on, although it sounds like nobody was seriously hurt.
This is fighting, these things happen. And they’re going to continue happening all the time. It’s the nature of the game.
If Tsarukyan really did still feel slighted after all that, then Saturday night should have provided the karmic justice he needed. The 27-year-old cemented his place as a top lightweight contender with a violent first round KO over Beneil Dariush and Green fell back to the edges of the lightweight rankings with an exceptionally violent first round KO loss at the hands of Jalin Turner.
Given, then, all the flavor choices and a chance to express a little concern for ‘King’—who ate far too many shots before his fight was stopped—Tsarukyan decided to stay salty in a recent interview on the MMA Hour.
“No. No, no—the referee [should] let them punch more,” Tsarukyan said of Green’s knockout loss (transcript via MMA Fighting). “He should stop maybe five more minutes. Let him be. It was good. I was happy. You can see when fight was like that, I was so happy when I went to the cage. My friend’s asked me, and I was laughing, like, ‘I’m happy. Bobby Green fell asleep.’
“We are fighters. We have different mind. We are killers. We are a little bit different.”
Tsarukyan then went on to say that Green didn’t “deserve” to be talked about, and explain that the only way he would fight the California native would be for the opportunity to “kill him in the cage.”
We get it dude, you’re violent, and there’s no doubt some truth in the whole ‘built different’ narrative. But, we’ve seen plenty of fighters show concern for one another and even for opponents. This is just a man riding a petty grudge for everything it’s worth. It doesn’t make him look tough or dangerous, it just makes him look childish.
President Conor McGregor
He sold the whiskey business, he rarely fights anymore, and the bar’s losing money. What’s Conor McGregor going to do to fill his free time moving forward? Unfortunately, as seems to be increasingly the answer with MMA fighters who have too much time on their hands, the move appears to be politics.
Conor McGregor whipped up a frenzy over the last week or so, following a stabbing attack in Dublin that sent three children to the hospital, where (as of December 4th) one was still battling for their life. With rumors that the incident had been perpetrated by someone not of Irish birth, McGregor took to social media issuing a number of statements about the “grave danger among us in Ireland that should never be here in the first place.”
His actions have reportedly sparked an investigation by Irish police, as a potential incitement to violence. Rather than withdrawing from the public sphere, however, it seems the publicity has only spurred on the former UFC champion’s political aspirations.
“Potential competition if I run. Gerry, 78. Bertie. 75. Enda, 74,” McGregor wrote in a post to Twitter, outlining his potential qualifications for office. “Each with unbreakable ties to their individual parties politics. Regardless of what the public outside of their parties feel. These parties govern themselves vs govern the people.
“Or me, 35. Young, active, passionate, fresh skin in the game. I listen. I support. I adapt. I have no affiliation/bias/favoritism toward any party. They would genuinely be held to account regarding the current sway of public feeling. I’d even put it all to vote. There’d be votes every week to make sure. I can fund. It would not be me in power as President, people of Ireland. It would be me and you.”
Potential competition if I run. Gerry, 78. Bertie. 75. Enda, 74. Each with unbreakable ties to their individual parties politics. Regardless of what the public outside of their parties feel. These parties govern themselves vs govern the people. Or me, 35. Young, active,… pic.twitter.com/HiLn3jAQ2e
McGregor went on to talk up his desire to “clean the f—in’ dail” with “absolute transparency and consultation to the public.”
“President of Ireland is a unique position to other countries but it would demand response to questioning. Dialect would be so good for us in the public. Our people feel ignored. Unheard. Until of course election time. Then the waffle begins.”
To date, fighters and politics have provided little in the way of promising outcomes. And plenty of dysfunction for those that do manage to get elected. The general tenor of their political stances seems to be one of completely reactionary thinking and even while McGregor’s message sounds nice and fair it smacks pretty heavily of the kind of rhetoric BJ Penn was leaning on for his hopes as governor of Hawaii.
A desire to clean house as though government is just a few old folks sitting together in a room? A promise to hold weekly votes involving the country’s entire population? And a promise of being free from political allegiance (which tracks a lot more like being easily swayed and free of any guiding compass)? These aren’t the propositions of a serious person, and McGregor could probably make his money go a lot further to helping people without pouring it into a doomed campaign.
Let’s be honest here, what Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou looked to be heading into Saturday’s PPV boxing event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the start of a prolonged, glorified ride into the sunset for the former UFC heavyweight champ. The best, and most realistic expectations had him getting throughouly out-classed and likely even stopped over the course of several rounds against the ‘Gypsy King’.
From there, Francis Ngannou would go back to the PFL, proud of what he’d accomplished, but as a former UFC star running on the fumes of past glory. Who were they going to find to fight him? Ante Delija, Denis Goltsov, Ryan Bader? Maybe he’d help the promotion cross the 100k PPV buy threshold a few times before retiring as a guy who had made a lot of money betting on himself as a big fight B-side, and an MMA star that a UFC rival desperately needed.
Francis Ngannou: Combat sports star
Instead, while he didn’t get the win, Francis Ngannou walked out of his fight with Tyson Fury with the feeling of a newly-established, legitimate combat sports star. An attraction who isn’t just good for the top of an MMA card or as second billing to one of the big-money boxers out there, but as someone who can command his own price, set his own terms. Is Deontay Wilder a bigger name in combat sports right now? Is Anthony Joshua?
Suddenly, where Francis Ngannou might have been someone those men felt they could use as a negotiating tool for other fights, or as an exhibition tuneup where they’d have the leverage, now the ‘Predator’ looks more like a legit competitor. Either someone that everyone can make a killing off of with a heavily hyped PPV or someone that can truly add to their own legacy as a big tough fight fans want to see.
It might be that Ngannou never actually ever wins a professional boxing match. But what felt like it was likely to be a high profile one-off that would chase him back to MMA suddenly has the look and feel of 3-5 professional fights in which Ngannou makes bank the whole way through. He has, very likely, in a single night, re-written the arc of his legacy as a fighter.
At this moment, I’d say that Francis Ngannou has put on the single greatest performance by an MMA fighter to ever cross into boxing. He’s broken a mold 30 years in the making, one which flatly states that MMA fighters cannot cross-over and face elite prime boxers and hold their own. To date, the only thing really close was Conor McGregor lasting 10 rounds with a 40-year-old Floyd Mayweather before getting TKOd.
Screengrab
The UFC takes an L
Beyond the remarkable nature of Francis Ngannou’s achievement and the effect it will likely have on his career, however, are the implications his achievement will have on the MMA industry. Most notably, the potential deletirous effect this could have on both the UFC and the PFL.
On the first front, the UFC has to come away here as a very obvious loser. Prior to his split from the world’s largest MMA promotion, Ngannou made it clear on several occasions that he wanted to make this fight with Dana White and the UFC brand as business partners. He felt the fight would sell better and feel bigger with the promotion on board, and he might have been right. McGregor vs. Mayweather was a enourmous success.
Instead, the UFC decided to try and make an example out of their heavyweight champion. More willing to try and wait out his intentions to see whether he would get cold feet with the potential of true free agency looming. Francis Ngannou didn’t, and got summarily kicked to the curb for daring not to bend.
Even getting the Fury fight (and the massive PFL contract) after leaving the UFC put the notion out into the ether that there may be greener pastures outside the promotion waiting for those fighter gutsy enough to make the leap. This success in Saudi Arabia, though, seems like it could supercharge that.
Sean O’Malley wants to box Gervonta Davis, if he’s serious about it, Francis Ngannou just laid a path to success. How many other fighters will look at what he’s done and see the UFC’s hesitancy to help them as a lack of belief in their potential. White’s short sightedness would have kept Ngannou from this new height forever. Do these athletes want to admit to themselves that they lack the Xtreme Couture talent’s self belief?
No picnic for the PFL
For the PFL, however, the problem feels much less theoretical and much more pressing…
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By all appearances business in boxing seems to be going strong. Gervonta Davis reportedly sold 1.2 million PPVs for his boxing bout against Ryan Garcia, Canelo Alvarez had two PPVs that drew in the half-million buys range in 2022, and Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor grabbed $1 million plus purses for their superfight last year. We’ve got Spence vs. Crawford on the near horizon, and Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo set for September.
But if there’s plenty of money getting made inside the ring, not all of it is going into the hands of high level, experienced pros. One of the top drawing events of the last year was Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury, two men as well known for their celebrity influencer status as their ability to trade punches.
And if the upcoming boxing calendar has some excellent title fights coming, it also has a couple major celebrity events that could eclipse any PPV numbers done by the serious pros. Jake Paul is set to take on former UFC title contender Nate Diaz this August, and heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury is set to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in October.
It’s those celebrity fights that seems to have boxing promoter Eddie Hearn unhappy. The Matchroom mouthpiece took some time to talk about celebrity boxing recently. Safe to say he’s not a fan.
Eddie Hearn talks Kingpyn’s Daniella Hemsley, celebrity boxing
Most recently in the realm of influencer pugilism was the Kingpyn boxing: Whindersson Nunes vs. King Kenny event, featuring Elle Brooke and AnEsonGib. Alongside the normal quotient of mediocre fisticuffs, the card also featured a “flash knockout” from OnlyFans star Daniella Hemsley. Not over her opponent, who she beat via split decision, but over the crowed, whom she left stunned with a revealing display of assets.
In an interview with Boxing Social following Matchroom’s Baumgardner vs. Linardatou 2 event, Hearn gave his thoughts on Hemsley’s revealing post-fight antics. Notably that he hated it, and that he feels boxing needs to distance itself from celebrity fighting as much as it possibly can.
“My opinion is, I hate it,” Hearn said of Hemsley flashing the crowd (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I hate it. We’ve worked so hard for women in boxing to be respected for their ability, for their merits, for their hard work. One thing we must understand is that ain’t boxing. That needs to be pushed. All that stuff — Misfits, Kingpyn, all that stuff. It needs to be booted so far away from professional boxing, and we really need to disassociate ourselves with what it is.
“It does great numbers. It’s entertainment. It’s all of those things, and what we saw there [with Hemsley]. For me, what I’m trying to do and what we’ve been doing for years and years, the sacrifices people have made to be respected — again, it’s not boxing. But at the same time, I think it’s more of a reflection of society than a reflection of good or bad for boxing. I don’t like it.”
“Unfortunately, we now live in a world where role models, or influencers, are not necessarily doing things that the older generation, which I class myself as, or parents would want your kids to see or think is acceptable,” Hearn added, noting that he’s loved having his daughters spend time with a professional fighter like Katie Taylor. “[It’s] nothing to do with women, nothing to do with men. You want your kids to behave in a certain way. That’s not a way you’d want your kids to behave, in my opinion. This is only my opinion. But we live in a f—king mental world. Unfortunately, clout is just being chased all over the place. To each their own.”
Boxing has no one to blame for the influencer takeover than itself
As much as it’s easy to understand Hearn’s knee-jerk dislike for the kind of buffoonery that celebrity boxing brings, combat sports have always had a courting relationship with some of their more carnival-esque iterations. In part, the ease of training compared to more organized stick & ball sports has kept the bar to entry impossibly low. Technically any two people that can get some gloves and a ring together can find a way to put on a boxing match for money. That’s not so easily done with a game of hockey.
However, It also has to be noted that promoters, boxers, and even legislators have worked to keep that bar to entry low for the sake of their own self interest. With so few pieces in play and such a huge potential for money making ventures, the cash that can be gotten from keeping boxing disorganized and from chasing whatever the hot fight of the moment might be means that there’s always room in the game for some total nonsense.
Muhammad Ali’s brutally ugly exhibition fight against Antonio Inoki made millions of dollars back in 1976. In 1999, the WWE featured a legit boxing match on their Wrestlemania XV PPV event. The bout was supposed to be a coming out party for Bart Gunn, winner of the WWE’s brawl for all boxing tournament, set up against journeyman boxing legend “Butterbean” Eric Esch.
Nowhere near an actual capable pro boxing talent, Gunn got knocked dead in just 0:35 seconds. The PPV, however, sold 800,000 buys with a main event featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin taking on the Rock for the WWE heavyweight championship. Where there’s money to be made from two people fighting, boxing will be there to help them see it through.
Boxing has rarely had a place for women
Even leaving aside boxing’s long comfort with and association with the more carnival aspects of combat, there’s also the simple fact that boxing has more or less always treated women as second class competitors and sideshow attractions.
Women have been competing inside the squared circle going all the way back to the 1720s. Yet even today regulators keep female competitors to no more than ten rounds and no longer than two minutes a round. Credit to Hearn, his longtime promotional interest in the career of undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor has been a feather in his cap, and the job he and (celebrity boxing notable) Jake Paul did in building up Taylor vs. Serrano was great.
Along the way, however, Serrano started suggesting that the fight should be for 12, three minute rounds. A chance to create the kind of equality that Hearn was proudly trumpeting with fight purses and publicity for the event, right? Nope. Instead it was too much too soon.
“Right now, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Hearn explained. “In time, I agree with you. I think we need to evolve and make sure that the very elite end of the sport is three-minute rounds. But I will also say this, when you’re introducing something into a market, fast-paced content is always good… Two-minute rounds is great action because you’ve got two minutes. You’ve got to win the round. They come out and the pace is much faster, but you will see more stoppages across three-minute rounds.
“I didn’t feel that now was the time we needed to introduce that. There would be a lot more talk about it being three-minute rounds than actually focusing on what this is, which is a huge, huge fight. So I agree with you in time. Now that the audience for women’s boxing is becoming more educated, more invested, I think we can definitely look at that.”
It’s only been 300 years Eddie. Let’s not rush things.
Celebrity boxing may not have the class or the talent, or even the stakes that actual good high level pugilism aspires to. But, it’s still very much a part of the game. The entrenched promoters can turn their nose up at these part-time fighters looking to make a quick buck. But they’ll never be the ones to create any kind of change that would make those money making opportunities go away.
culturesink 