The Real Winners and Losers from the Tyron Woodley-Jake Paul 2 Card
The hockey team has two straight Stanley Cups.
The football team is the reigning Super Bowl champion.
But nothing on the Tampa-area scene was quite like what arrived Saturday night.
The city's premier downtown venue—corporately dubbed Amalie Arena—was ground zero for the latest co-mingling of social media influence and combat sports relevance. In this case, it was the second meeting of unbeaten "boxer" and YouTube kingpin Jake Paul and foundering former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.
Paul, 24, beat a fellow YouTuber, a former NBA player and a retired mixed martial artist in three "bouts" before topping Woodley by split decision four months ago in Cleveland. The ex-octagonal stalwart, now 39, had won precisely zero MMA matches in nearly three years, losing once in 2019, twice in 2020 and once earlier this year before making the summertime switch to the ring.
He got a second go-round when Paul's scheduled pre-Christmas foe, Tommy Fury, pulled out with an injury.
The rematch topped a four-bout pay-per-view card produced by Showtime and available for $59.99.
The B/R combat sports team, fresh off last week's shockers at UFC 269, was front and center once again for the goings-on alongside Tampa Bay—compiling the show's definitive list of winners and losers.
Click through to see what we came up with, and share some of your own personal influence in the comments.
Winner: Stopping the Show
1 of 7Some love him. Some hate him.
But you can’t argue that Jake Paul has legit showman’s chops.
Just when it looked like the Ohio-bred loudmouth would be booed out of the ring after five rounds of sheer drudgery with second-time rival Tyron Woodley, he found a way to go viral.
Not long after the midway point of Round 6 of a comprehensively dull encounter, Paul landed a whip-crack of a right hand that snuck around Woodley’s guard, struck him alongside the left ear and rendered him instantly unconscious.
The former MMA star tumbled hideously to the canvas, where his face struck first before the rest of his motionless body landed with a thud. Referee Christopher Young immediately waved off a count and summoned medical personnel to tend to the stricken Woodley as Paul ran to his corner to celebrate.
If it’s not the KO of the Year, it’s certainly a high-ranked contender.
Woodley regained his feet after a few minutes and congratulated Paul on his victory.
The official time was 2:12 of the sixth.
"I said that I would f**k him up and I did. Anyone. Any time. Any place," Paul said, speaking with Showtime’s Ariel Helwani about what might come next, before referring specifically to UFC fighters Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, who’d been seated at ringside but left before Paul’s fight ended.
"Y’all are some b**ches for leaving the arena,” he said. “I know you don’t want that sh*t. I’ll take out both y’all next. Get out of your contracts with Daddy Dana. I’m gonna f**k them up, too."
Winner: Worthwhile Women
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Suddenly, it’s a bit more difficult to disrespect women’s boxing.
Multi-division champion Amanda Serrano created an arena full of believers on Saturday with a savage 10-round beatdown of former world title challenger Miriam Gutierrez in the night’s final pre-Paul bout.
A 33-year-old from Puerto Rico now fighting out of Brooklyn, Serrano has established herself as an XX-chromosome version of Manny Pacquiao thanks both to her proclivity for acquiring title belts—she has won hardware in seven weight classes—and a frenetic style in which she overwhelms foes with volume.
She attacked Gutierrez with two-fisted ferocity in the opening round and had referee Emil Lombardi taking long looks to see if things would continue beyond the opening two minutes.
They did, but the one-sided scenario played out similarly in each successive round as Serrano walked forward at will and prompted her foe to focus on defense and evasion far more than offense.
By the time it ended, the durable Gutierrez had a badly misshapen nose, two swollen eyes and redness from nearly the top of her torso to the bottom.
Predictably, the final scorecards were 99-90, 99-91 and 100-90, all in Serrano's favor.
The B/R combat sports team's card matched the third, calling all 10 rounds for Serrano.
The victory clears the way for Serrano, now 42-1-1 as a pro, to pursue a big-ticket 2022 fight with Irish-based lightweight champion Katie Taylor, whom Gutierrez unsuccessfully challenged in 2020.
Taylor holds the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles at 135 pounds and improved to 20-0 with a defeat of Firuza Sharipova last weekend in Liverpool, England.
Serrano held the WBO’s lightweight belt in 2014 before vacating it to return to featherweight. A pro since 2009, she has won titles at weight classes ranging from 118 to 140 pounds.
"I’m a true warrior. I’m a true champion. My power comes wherever I take it. You can see her face and look at my face," Serrano said. "She’s a tough girl. She’s a big girl. Tonight, she’s probably 160 or 165 pounds. Honestly, I’m like 133 or 134 pounds. But it doesn’t matter to me.
"She’s a tough fighter. She did say she was in better shape this time than when she fought Katie Taylor because she had a year layoff. Now, she just had a fight last month that she won. I fought the best Miriam Gutierrez and I beat her."
Winner: Basketball Redemption
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This just in: Deron Williams is no Nate Robinson.
Unlike the tiny ex-point guard whom Paul blasted into second-round oblivion a year ago in California, the taller, stronger and clearly better-schooled NBA alumnus was far more successful for his turn in the center ring of Paul’s combat sports crossover circus.
The 6’3” Williams used his length and showed respectable power, defense and stamina while pounding his way to an entertaining decision victory over 16-season NFL veteran Frank Gore in what was labeled a “heavyweight special attraction” between fighters making their pro ring debuts.
Williams, 37, earned 40-35 and 38-37 margins on two scorecards, while the 38-year-old Gore got a ludicrous 38-37 nod from a third judge. The 40-35 card matched the B/R combat sports team’s tally as well.
“I'm going to go sit my old ass down somewhere," Williams said.
"I always was a physical point guard. I never shied away from contact, and I showed that today. People think basketball players are soft, but I never was one. That’s what I was looking to accomplish here today.
"Maybe I gained some new fans, but I’m just glad I made my team happy and my family proud. My mom was nervous. She didn’t want to watch and see her son beaten up, so I hope she was proud of that."
The former all-stars in their respective sports dove headlong into their violent new endeavor, with Williams working effectively beyond a left jab and a surprisingly quick, snapping overhand right.
He hurt Gore several times with the shot and left him reeling, but the NFL’s third-leading career rusher didn’t hit the canvas in the second round until Williams shoved him down and under the ropes.
The 5’9” Gore consulted briefly with a ringside doctor before continuing, but he was never able to consistently get inside to land power shots of his own. He was driven to the canvas for a count by referee Christopher Young in the third round before rising and staying on his feet through the fourth.
"It’s all good. He won the fight tonight. He fought hard. I fought hard," Gore said. "I just still have to learn some stuff. He did a good job tonight. We’ll see if I fight again. I had fun tonight. I’ll go back and talk to my team to see what’s next."
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Loser: Main Card Substance
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Realistically speaking, it was a no contest.
Among the 12 males who boxed on Saturday's show, none came close to the level of accomplishment and pedigree brought to the ring by junior welterweights Liam Paro and Yomar Alamo.
The pair was unbeaten in 42 professional bouts—with 41 wins, a draw and 25 knockouts between them.
And their 10-rounder featured a respectable number of violent exchanges, including a first-round knockdown scored by Alamo, not to mention high-level footwork, defense and overall technique.
Still, when placed before an audience more hungry for sizzle than steak, the efforts were essentially wasted.
For the record, Paro did emerge with a split-decision victory by scores of 95-94 and 96-93 against a dissenting view of 95-94 for Alamo.
The Australian landed 19 percent of his total punches and 38 percent of his power shots.
But the 30 minutes of world-class combat drew far less attention than separate chants deriding Joe Biden and celebrating Puerto Rico, the ringside arrival of Jorge Masvidal, video-board glimpses of multiple major-winning golfer Brooks Koepka and Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh and the requisite fight in the stands.
"It was a flash knockdown and I didn’t expect that. I shook it off after the first round and just did what I had to do to win," Paro said. "I changed after that and knew I had to establish my jab.
"Every time I hit him with the jab he would get off-balance and I would get him off his rhythm. We stuck to the game plan and kept level-headed. Alamo gave me a hell of a fight, hats off to him.
"I’m just going to chill out back in Australia, enjoy Christmas and get back to the gym next year to secure a world title."
Loser: Tommy Fury's Bank Statement
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Tommy Fury was not in the ring in Tampa on Saturday.
But he clearly wasn't far from Jake Paul's mind all week.
Though the still-unbeaten Englishman—a half-brother to heavyweight kingpin Tyson Fury—pulled out of his grudge match with what appeared to be a legitimate rib injury, it didn't stop Paul from trolling his would-be opponent by wearing a T-shirt at a Friday media event with an arrow pointing toward Woodley under the phrase "Tommy, this could have been you."
Fury, who fought on the undercard of Paul's initial match with Woodley in August, has suggested he still hopes the two get together at some point in the future, but Paul has yet to commit to it.
Incidentally, both Paul and Woodley earned $2 million for their first bout and were expected to be in that range again for Saturday's return bout/cash grab. Paul, in fact, wore a black ski mask to Friday's weigh-in and said "They're gonna give me a big bag to go and beat the guy I already beat? This is a bank robbery."
Fury's purse for his undercard appearance in August was $15,000.
"He’s just an embarrassment," Paul told the MMA Hour. "You let your country down, you let your team down, and you let a lot of people who hate me down. And you missed out on the biggest opportunity of your life, I think, and I think you know that."
Winner: Undercard 'Substance'
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There was no high-level technique or even highlight-reel violence.
But the earliest-arriving crowd in Tampa did seem at least intermittently content.
Youngster Jeovanny Estela, who looks barely half of his actual 21 years, got the biggest positive pop of the pre-PPV undercard with a unanimous four-round decision over junior middleweight foe Chris Rollins that didn't feature any knockdowns but did yield a few entertaining firefights.
Their bout got started a few minutes after 7 p.m. in a building that was already about half-full, as opposed to many traditional undercards where the preliminary fighters compete before scores of empty seats.
And, because it was a Paul show, there was the occasional appearance by a 10-foot tall "Problem Bot," and another big pop—this time almost unanimously negative—when the "Island Boys"—two singing brothers with a significant following on TikTok—emerged from backstage and strolled the arena floor.
In other words, just what a teenage and 20-something crowd came to see.
As for the fight, the final 60 seconds were particularly engaging after the young prospect, who'd arrived with five wins in a 13-month pro career, was rattled by a hard uppercut along the ropes but quickly replied with a looping right hand that left Rollins stiff-legged.
The two swung for the fences from that point on until referee Christopher Young stepped between them at the final bell, and Estela improved to 6-0 soon after with matching 40-36 nods on all three scorecards.
The din died down with the matchup of J'Leon Love, a former Mayweather Promotions client who draws attention these days as Paul's boxing trainer, and former 175-pound title challenger Marcus Oliveira.
Love, now 34, hadn't won a fight in 43 months, while Oliveira, 42, who lost a bid for the WBA light heavyweight title in 2013, had beaten two non-descript foes since a four-fight skid from 2015 to 2019.
The veteran cruiserweights, both 20-plus pounds above their prime fighting weights, went a desultory eight rounds before Love was awarded a decision by scores of 77-75, 79-73 and 78-74.
The off-TV trio was wrapped by a back-and-forth eight-rounder matching MMA rivals Chris Avila and Anthony Taylor, which went the distance before Avila grabbed a majority decision with scores of 78-74 and 77-75 overriding a 76-76 nod.
Avila got his first pro win after losing his boxing debut in 2014, while Taylor, who boxed Tommy Fury on the August show, is now 2-3. Taylor won a majority decision when the two met in a Bellator MMA cage.
Full Card Results from Tyron Woodley vs. Jake Paul
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Main Card
Jake Paul def. Tyron Woodley by KO (punch), 2:12, Round 6
Amanda Serrano def. Miriam Gutierrez by unanimous decision (99-90, 99-91, 100-90)
Deron Williams def. Frank Gore by split decision (40-35, 38-37, 37-38)
Liam Paro def. Yomar Alamo by split decision (95-94, 94-95, 96-93)
Preliminary Card
Chris Avila def. Anthony Taylor by majority decision (78-74, 77-75, 76-76)
J'Leon Love def. Marcus Oliveira by unanimous decision (77-75, 79-73, 78-74)
Jeovanny Estela def. Chris Rollins by unanimous decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
