The Real Winners and Losers from the Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury Card
The circus was similar.
But the result was far different.
Social media behemoth Jake Paul's boxing journey met a temporary Waterloo in a 15,000-seat outdoor venue in Saudi Arabia, of all places, where he dropped a split decision to high-profile British rival Tommy Fury atop a live five-bout pay-per-view produced by ESPN on Sunday afternoon (U.S. time).
The PPV show began at 2 p.m. ET and was available for $49.99 plus tax.
It was Paul's first loss after six wins in a career that began in 2020 and had included a YouTuber, an ex-NBA player and three MMA fighters before Fury, who'd been a reality TV star while racking up eight straight victories against foes with a combined 24-176-5 record.
Fury, who rose from an eighth-round knockdown, earned 76-73 scores from two judges, while Paul got a 75-74 edge from the dissenter.
B/R had it exactly the same as the majority, giving Fury a 5-2 edge in rounds with one even due to a point deduction.
"I felt flat," Paul said. "I got sick really bad twice in this camp, injured my arm ... but I lost. I'm not making excuses. I'm just saying it wasn't my best performance. ... Don't judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses."
Paul and Fury finally stood face to face for referee instructions at 5:30 p.m., and the B/R combat sports team was on hand from start to finish to compile a definitive list of the card's real winners and losers.
Scroll through to see what we came up with, and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
Winner: Overcoming Problems
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It was evident from the first exchange.
Compared to the opponents with whom Paul had been matched through the early part of his ring career, Fury was better. He was faster. He was sharper. He was far more prepared.
And over the course of 24 minutes, it showed.
The British reality TV star insisted during the pre-fight buildup that his familial ties and fighting pedigree meant something more than free publicity. Then he went and proved it by controlling nearly every meaningful aspect of the fight.
Fury threw (302 to 157) and landed more punches (88 to 49), and he managed footwork and consistently dictated the pace with a solid jab and crisp counterpunching.
Each fighter was docked a point for holding and hitting by an overactive referee, Hector Afu, and Paul scored the lone knockdown to begin the eighth round when he decked Fury with a hard left jab. It wasn't a truly decisive blow, however, and neither man ever appeared in significant danger despite exchanging pre-fight promises the fight would end by KO.
In reality, it was a very compelling fight between novice professionals, one of whom was of a slightly higher caliber this time around.
Next time? Who knows?
"All respect to Tommy, he won," Paul said. "... I'll come back. I think we deserve that rematch. ... This is definitely a humbling experience, I'll take it on the chin, get back in the gym, and we can run it back."
Paul does have a contractual right to call for a rematch, an option Fury would not have had if he'd been on the losing side. Still, he was all in for a return engagement as well.
"All the way through these two-and-a-half years, I had a dream. I had a vision that I would win this fight," he said. "This, to me, was a world title fight. And 100 percent. If he wants a rematch, bring it on."
Winner: Career-Capper
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Whaddya know? There was a legit boxer in the ring in Saudi Arabia.
And his name was Badou Jack.
The former title-holder at 168 and 175 pounds made himself a triple crown champion by winning the WBC cruiserweight strap from Ilunga Makabu with a 12th-round TKO that followed a comprehensively one-sided performance.
Now 39, Jack debuted as a pro in 2009 and won his first title at super middleweight in 2015 before moving to light heavyweight for a second title run. He'd not had a title fight since losing to Jean Pascal in 2019 but had won five straight matches in the interim.
"I was standing there too much," Jack said. "[Trainer Johnathon Banks] told me to box and move, but I like to come forward and fight."
Jack was faster, more accurate and sharper from the outset, using prudent movement in a compact 18-foot ring to bedevil his slower, less-polished opponent. Though he'd scored 25 KOs in 29 previous victories, including one in a previous title defense, Makabu couldn't land a decisive shot to altered Jack from his successful game plan.
The older man landed a counter right hand that sent Makabu to the floor in the fourth round, and he dropped him again with another right in the 11th. The now-ex-champion continued to press forward throughout, but Jack landed 61 percent of his power shots.
He landed another big right hand that sent Makabu reeling backward to the ropes shortly after the bell to start the 12th and followed up with a flurry of 12 more unanswered shots that forced the hand of referee Mark Lyson after 54 seconds.
B/R had Jack ahead 108-99, or 9-2 in rounds with a pair of two-point margins, at the time of the stoppage.
Jack became the first Muslim to win a world title in Saudi Arabia, the oldest cruiserweight champion in the division's history and the first fighter to win titles at 168, 175 and 200 pounds.
Winner: Getting Noticed
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Precisely no one was tuning in to see Muhsin Cason or his like.
But the younger brother of former heavyweight title claimant Hasim Rahman still made the most of his spot on the Paul-Fury bill when it comes to career advancement.
The 29-year-old Las Vegas-based cruiserweight looked and sounded like a fighter before he climbed the steps to the ring on Sunday afternoon, then performed like a fighter once he arrived on the way to a first-round dispatch of overmatched veteran Taryel Jafarov.
Jafarov, a native of Azerbaijan, sold himself as a slugger and carried the nickname "Belligerent" into the ring, but he was dumped with the first right hand he took and spent much of the three-minute session stumbling amateurishly to avoid further punishment.
The fight ended abruptly at the end of the round when Jafarov's corner waved things off due to injury, though the exact nature of the malady was not specified.
"I don't get paid to work overtime," Cason said.
Also punching the clock quickly was 22-year-old lightweight Bader Al-Samreen, who dropped 41-year-old foe Viorel Simion once and finished him by TKO in just 86 seconds.
Cason scored his eighth KO in 11 victories, and Samreen improved to 8-0 with seven KOs.
Loser: Production Value
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It was clearly a high-profile promotion.
Having familiar faces like Paul and Fury on the bill in an international venue and on a broadcast handled by a mammoth TV sports entity guaranteed as much.
Once the cameras went on, though, things seemed a little less impressive.
When it came to calling the action, the blow-by-blow announcing team of Ray Flores, Shawn Porter and Larry Wade provided far more fanfare and bluster than analysis.
Porter bumbled geography in the very first fight when he incorrectly labeled winner Al-Samreen as a native of Sudan rather than Jordan—an error of roughly 1,000 air miles—and the post-fight interview quickly went south when Radio Rahim's mic was not functional.
The between-fights hosting table was captained by Top Rank's Crystina Poncher and leaned similarly toward cheerleading, particularly during a visit by former heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder in which he was lauded for his fashion sense and persistently badgered to disclose his plans for a fight schedule in 2023.
Later, before the co-main matching Makabu and Jack, there was a noticeable delay between Michael Buffer's set-up line and the beginning of the music for the champion's ring walk.
And during the fight itself, Wade incorrectly identified the challenger's trainer as Anthony (rather than Johnathon) Banks.
All live TV events have some quality issues. But this one was a bit over the line.
Loser: Maintaining Kayfabe
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Was it nonsense?
Or did it have to be changed late in the game?
That was the discussion being had by conspiracy theorists after the main event ended in a far different fashion than the apparent "script" leaked Saturday night on Twitter by former UFC fighter Mike Perry.
Perry was the backup fighter in case one of the main-eventers was unable to go.
The would-be game plan was titled "Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury Script - Revision #4 - Final" and included details all the way down to the walk-out songs and outfits for each fighter.
It included a disclaimer claiming it was proprietary, belonged to TroopBoxingPromotions and contained "confidential or privileged information."
The round-by-round plan called for Fury to sustain apparent eye damage as early as the fourth round, to opt to continue after a doctor's intervention about the eye in the fifth round and to ultimately succumb in the eighth via a sequence in which "Tommy shall act out an eye injury that forces the referee to call off the fight" and declare Paul a TKO winner.
The post-fight scenario included an improvised argument between the fighters, a Paul call-out of fellow social media combatant KSI, and ultimately an agreement for a rematch to take place in Los Angeles. The tweet had better than 15,000 likes by the time the card started Sunday afternoon and had been retweeted better than 2,000 times.
Not surprisingly, the fight's promoters told SunSport, "We can confirm, it's fake."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Tommy Fury def. Jake Paul by split decision (74-75, 76-73, 76-73)
Badou Jack def. Ilunga Makabu by TKO, 0:54, Round 12
Ziyad Almaayouf def. Ronnald Martinez by unanimous decision (38-37, 38-37, 38-37)
Muhsin Cason def. Taryel Jafarov by TKO, 3:00, Round 1
Bader Al-Samreen def. Viorel Simion by TKO, 1:26, Round 1
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