The circus of the Joshua-Paul boxing fight |
‘The numbers are putrid, to say the least,’ harrumphed commentator Maura Ranallo at the start of the fourth round of last night’s fight between British boxer Anthony Joshua and American YouTuber Jake Paul. For the first three rounds, Paul skittered around the edges of the unusually large ring, evading Joshua’s every attempt at a setup. Paul had no interest in trying to hit Joshua. Stepping in would have risked being clobbered himself, given the Brit’s far longer reach. Instead, he put his mind towards provoking Joshua by dropping his hands, sticking his tongue out, coming in for a clinch whenever he could.
By the end of the fourth, the referee, Chris Young, was also despairing. He brought the pair together, reminding them that ‘the fans did not pay to watch this crap’. But that was a misunderstanding. Young assumed that the fans had paid to see some boxing. Instead, they had come to see a social media prank of the sort on which Paul had built his career.
Like all good comics, Paul sought to build the anticipation. Those three rounds of dancing around the ring drew a smattering of boos, but they were a necessary price. In the fourth, Paul wrapped both arms around Joshua’s middle and tried to pull him to the........