Class divide Taylor shows the grace and ringcraft blatantly lacking in Paul-Tyson charade

Jake Paul and Katie Taylor provide a study in contrast that would be amusing if it did not contain such stark truths about the different strands of boxing they represent.

- Donald McRae

The brash YouTube influencer, Paul, is now a novice boxer making $40m (£31.7m) in a contrived bout as he continues to change the landscape of the fight game with his crudely effective business strategies.

Taylor remains the quiet, pioneering Christian who has done more than anyone for female boxers around the world while drawing on her incredible will to prevail in one brutal fight after another.

They were the opposing winners at the vast and gleaming home of the Dallas Cowboys on Friday night in Texas. Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who is promoted by Paul, produced an extraordinary contest which came close to matching the gravitas of their first fight at Madison Square Garden in April 2022. It was crammed with grit, skill and the kind of bloody controversy which accompanies the most profound rivalries.

Paul beat a 58-year-old Mike Tyson in an embarrassing charade which, for all the hoopla, ended up being booed. Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, his menacingly suave business partner, tried hard to make it sound as if we had just seen a modern variant of the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila. It was, instead, a stinker.

Even Paul seemed to feel some sadness at the ravaged sight of Tyson. He suggested that he had spared old Mike from a knockout: "Yeah, definitely. I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn't want to hurt someone that didn't need to be hurt."