Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul… ‘eh
By Greg Evans
To admit that I stayed up for this Main Event is unsettling. Will I get paid for my time lost?Joshua, a heavy weight champion against Paul, an up-and-coming fighter who seemingly proved himself well in the ring as a competitor, excluding the fight against iron Mike Tyson which arguably was rigged, with boxing fans vocalizing it as a more of a WWF match than a straight fight, but this one was expected to be different.
Talking heads said, multiple times that if the fight goes more than 2 rounds without Joshua knocking Paul out, people will be surprised.
The first three fights were decent with Jahmal Harvey winning the first match in a decision; Silva winning the second with a knock out , and Baumgardner winning the third in a decision.
The fight began with Paul either running around the ring, tying up Joshua, often clinging to his enormous leg, or rolling around on the mat. Now, Joshua wanted to box and was trying to, but Paul was doing something else. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t boxing, per say; in the traditional sense.
The first four and a half rounds reminded me of “tag you’re it”, along with gymnastics somersaults by someone who never took gymnastics. Arguably, the second worst fight I’ve ever watched. The first was Jake Paul against Mike Tyson. That was unbearable. Mercifully, for us, Paul was knocked out in the 6th round. Honestly, had he stood in and actually boxed, he probably would have been knocked out in the first round. Joshua was superior in talent, conditioning, and strategy. And he gets extra points for trying to box.
Earlier in the evening, I saw a video of two clawless cats fighting on instagram that was more in the arena of a boxing match. I doubt I’ll ever tune in to another Jake Paul fight again. I guess that’s his style and if so, fine. Not entertaining for me. I prefer the old school boxing, like the first fight of the card between Harvey and Cervantes. That was a solid match. The ladies were good too. Silva and Woodley got going a bit in the second round, at least by the knockout. That one, though, also was boring up until that one and final punch.
Overall, I give the Main Event a 1.2 stars out of 5. I know there are some of you out there chirping about how great it was, but you probably have skin in the game, so your opinion doesn’t count.