Last Friday’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) event headlined by Jake Paul and Mike Tyson ironically saw its main event turn into exactly what had been predicted it would be; a circus show that would offer no substantial rewards to the sport of boxing, and was only meant to get both of the headlining fighters paid well. Contrastingly, the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano was a much better match but that bout in itself carried marks of shame as Taylor put up one of the most shameful performances of her career as she doubled down on the dirtiness she exhibited in her previous fight. The card was further hosted at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on November 15 and broadcasted by global streaming service Netflix.

Katie Taylor Vs. Amanda Serrano

Irish women’s super lightweight (140 lbs) undisputed champion Katie Taylor (24-1, 6 KO’s) defended her titles against Puerto Rican legend Amanda Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KO’s). Their fight would be a rematch of their 2022 fight which saw Taylor claim a close, if not controversial, victory by split-decision (SD). The second fight was scheduled for a total of 10 rounds over 2 minutes.

Competitively, the title bout waged between the two fighters was by far the best fight on the card. Reminiscent of their first match, Taylor and Serrano brawled hard over the course of 10 rounds but also showed plenty of glimpses of skill.

The first half of the fight was difficult to call for either fighter but may have gone mostly in Serrano’s favor as her activity appeared to outweigh that of Taylor. Throughout the 6 rounds, Taylor’s resistance was formidable, posing many threats to Serrano especially on the counter.

In the 4th round, Amanda Serrano sustained a gruesome cut at the end of the round that could have resulted in a no contest had the fight been stopped then [as fights stopped before the 5th round are ruled as a no-contest]. To Serrano’s credit, she fought on despite the injury having been depicted on replays to be caused by a headbutt from Taylor.

There were doubts as to whether this headbutt had been intentional, but as the fight went on and Serrano’s cut worsened, Katie Taylor displayed a shocking case of dirtiness as she continued to headbutt Serrano several times. Depicted live on camera throughout the fight and on replays, Taylor would remove any doubts as to whether her headbutt was intentional as she would repeat doing so three or four more times.

As a result of the cut suffered in the 4th, Amanda Serrano struggled largely in the subsequent rounds but managed to remain the more active fighter, throwing more punches overall per round. In comparison, Taylor was the more efficient fighter as the punch stats would further indicate.

As the fight progressed, Taylor’s dirty tactics were complemented by her holding/clinching as Serrano appeared to get back into the match. The consistent headbutting by Taylor, which was even more egregious given the cut Amanda Serrano suffered, seemed to galvanize the Puerto Rican fighter to take most of the last 3 championship rounds, culminating in a close contest split by only one round. Taylor also got one point deducted for headbutting in the 8th round.

All three judges’ scorecards gave a unanimous decision (UD) win towards Katie Taylor through identical scorecards of 95-94―controversially so as Amanda Serrano had done well to claim the majority of the rounds despite her injury. While Taylor did appear to be the more efficient fighter, she also defined her performance with too many dirty tactics and did not step up her activity when needed to put the fight in her favor. Taylor’s consistent holding should also have posed a barrier to her winning the scorecards.

However, the fight was extremely competitive and might have gone either way if it had not been for Katie Taylor consistently and thoroughly displaying a sense of unmatched dirtiness that was barely called out during the match and not taken into account by any of the judges except for the 8th round point deduction.

As a result of her victory, Taylor retained all her 140 lbs titles [WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF] against an opponent in Serrano who is a living legend in her own right.

Mike Tyson Vs. Jake Paul

58-year old Mike Tyson and 27-year old Jake Paul both entered the ring in completely different stages of their careers. Fighting at heavyweight (200+ lbs) without any title on the line, the two competed in a 8-round/2-minute bout in what was clearly a spectacle not meant to be taken serious.

Tyson’s last professional bout occurred almost 20 years before when he was stopped by Kevin McBride in 2005, and due to his age was already at a severe disadvantage against Paul.

This would become evident during their headlining bout when a nearly 60-year old Mike Tyson clearly looked his age. The bulk of Tyson’s activity came in the first 2 rounds and culminated in him throwing several punches with only a couple landing. However, this activity would drastically wane over the course of the next 6 rounds.

Throughout, Jake Paul remarkably restrained himself despite Tyson’s slowness, opting to box Mike Tyson from the outside. There were mild difficulties in landing punches for Jake Paul due to Tyson’s head movement, but it would prove to be a severely easy match for Paul whose jab set up several combinations he would land during the match,

Overall, it was a disappointing affair mostly defined by Tyson’s lack of activity and Paul’s tentativeness. Jake Paul won the match by UD through scorecards of 79-73 twice and 80-72.

Undercard Fights

• At welterweight (147 lbs), American WBC champion Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KO’s) defended his title against countryman Abel Ramos (28-6-3, 22 KO’s). Barrios retained his title after a 12-round thriller, though the fight between the two culminated in a split-decision (SD) draw.

• Another world title fight occurred in the women’s middleweight (160 lbs) division as American contender Shadasia Green (15-1, 11 KO’s) and Canadian contender Melinda Watpool (7-1, 2 KO’s) fought over the vacant WBO title. Green narrowly won the match by SD after the completion of the 10 rounds through the judges’ scorecards of 97-93, 94-96 and 96-94. Green became the WBO middleweight champion as a result.

• At lightweight (135 lbs), unbeaten contenders Lucas Bahdi (18-0, 15 KO’s) from Canada and Armando Casamonica (14-1, 3 KO’s) from Italy fought the full 10 rounds of their bout, with Bahdi managing to win by majority decision (MD) and scorecards of 96-93, 98-92 and 95-95.

• American featherweight (126 lbs) prospect Bruce Carrington (14-0, 8 KO’s) had a dominant outing against Australian contender Dana Coolwell (13-3, 8 KO’s), winning all of the match’s 8 rounds through triple scorecards of 80-70.