Do Exhibition Matchups Erode Boxing’s Integrity?

No one was surprised to watch Mike Tyson have his lunch handed to him by Jake Paul in their long-awaited fight last November. Tyson, despite being in absurdly good shape for a man his age, is almost old enough to collect social security. Paul, by contrast, is at the prime of his fitness.

And so it went that one hundred million or so people tuned in to watch a YouTuber beat up an aged legend.

Of course, true boxing fans know that the real show was the Taylor/Serrano fight, which took place on the same card. Taylor went on to win by unanimous decision, punching no grandparents at all on her way to claiming the welterweight title.

Exhibition matchups make for fun headlines but - particularly in this case - they tend to underdeliver on fight night. Do exhibition matchups erode boxing’s integrity?

What is a Sports Bettor to Do?

The recording artist Drake infamously bet $350,000 against Jake Paul in the Tyson matchup. The bet would have earned him something in the neighborhood of one million dollars had things gone the other way. Instead, he lost the price of a nice house on a wager any halfway sensible eleven-year-old could have advised against.

The obvious bet was on Paul, and the odds certainly reflected as much. He was booked at -230.

What is a sport better supposed to make of a matchup like this? Not very much. If you’re determined to bet on a flashy exhibition fight like the Tyson-Paul matchup, you can get really granular, making your wager specific to the rounds, etc. but there’s no real sport in betting on the outcome itself.

Obviously, for this particular card, there was the much more compelling Taylor/Serrano fight to keep sports bettors busy. In other cases, you’ll do better to shift your gambling to an online casino for real money at Bovada.

Online gaming opportunities provide a more consistent experience than live sporting events. Blackjack is always blackjack. While a virtual casino won’t replace your love of sports betting, it can supplement it when the fight card just isn’t compelling enough.

Jake Paul: The New Face of the Sport?

Love him or hate him, Jake Paul is the fighter your mom is the most likely to have heard of. Pretty much by default, that makes him the public face of the sport. Is he the best active fighter in circulation? Hey—that was a joke. Don’t go anywhere.

Obviously, the Disney star turned YouTuber turned fighter is not an exceptional talent. He’s made his name taking high-profile bouts against people who were already past their prime. To date, his record includes:

• A retired NBA player who had never boxed before (Nate Robinson), which ended in a knockout that launched a thousand memes

• A past-his-prime MMA fighter known more for wrestling than striking (Ben Askren), who Paul dispatched in the first round while earning a reported $690,000

• Two aging UFC champions (Tyron Woodley - twice, and Anderson Silva) who were well beyond their fighting prime when they stepped into the boxing ring

• Tommy Fury, his first fight against an actual boxer, which resulted in his first professional loss via split decision

• Andre August, a relatively unknown professional boxer with a decent record, marking Paul's attempt to gain more credibility in the boxing world

The thing is, while hardcore fight fans might scoff at his resume, Paul has consistently drawn massive pay-per-view numbers and brought new eyes to the sport. His fights are events that transcend traditional boxing audiences, even if the quality of competition has been carefully curated.

Paul is pitted very deliberately against opponents he will beat. If he gets his face re-arranged in front of 100 million people it will break the spell. That’s what’s supposed to happen, isn’t it? When a man strolls from Disney World into the ring with little more than a high YouTube subscriber account as his qualification, he should have his you-know-what handed to him.

Paul has a team of people who are paid well to ensure that his record remains–mostly–clean. This in and of itself is not unusual for boxing, but when a 28 year old is fighting men in their late 50s, its safe to say that a new extreme has been reached.

Do exhibition matchups erode boxing’s credibility?

There are two ways to look at it: You can say that fights like the Tyson/Paul matchup are a silly waste of time. If your focus is only on the worthiness of the fight itself it would be hard to fault that description.

But there is another way to look at it. Guys like Jake Paul, ridiculous though they might be, bring more visibility to the sport. The Taylor/Serrano fight was viewed by 74 million people. That’s an insane figure by any metric and truly staggering for the often underappreciated world of women’s sports.

It’s not exactly right to say that boxing was hurting for viewers, but there is no way that a women’s welterweight fight would attract that many eyeballs without a little marketing help. Exhibition matchups are glitzy and obnoxious, but at the end of the day, they generate attention. Extra eyes are good for the sport, regardless of what brought them there.