Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago

Whindersoon Nunes is a 29-year-old Brazilian who has made a fortune as a streamer, comedian, actor and musician.
His Wikipedia page also rather fancifully describes him as a professional boxer. A bit of a stretch. He lost his only paid four-rounder to My Mate Nate, another YouTuber prankster, by unanimous decision in Manchester last year. Evincing no real fistic talent, Nunes’s clash with Neeraj Goyat, an actual boxer, will take place a couple of fights before Katie Taylor squares off with Amanda Serrano at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday night.
By dint of an Instagram following of 59 million, Nunes gets to make the same ring walk as a groundbreaker who fought in Ireland’s first sanctioned female bout at 15 and spent more than two decades shattering glass ceilings in her sport.
To reach this impressive venue that will host 80,000 and a potential television audience of half a billion, Taylor honed her craft, put her body on the line, and battled prejudice while testing herself against some of the finest women’s fighters ever.
Nunes got here by carving out a lucrative niche filming jolly japes like filling a square in Sao Paulo with fake statues and jumping in a coffin at a funeral.
Not the first serious champion to end up having to participate in some grotesquerie to improve her bank balance, here’s hoping Taylor is taking home a reported $6.1 million purse. She’s earning every cent because her typically understated presence at this Netflix-endorsed sporting farrago featuring Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson lends it an air of dignity and credibility the promotion scarcely deserves.
In what may well be her last fight, she is the warm-up act for a farce involving a professional irritant with a keen eye for turning a quick buck and a heavyweight great within touching distance of 60 who has not really mattered since 1990.
[ Katie Taylor set for record payday on Tyson v Paul Netflix card that has baffled and dismayed many boxing insidersOpens in new window ]
Boxing has always been a fecund space for money men peddling freak shows to easily part fools from their money. This particular pantomime reeks of those 19th century carnival sideshows where ordinary Joes were invited to try to last a single round against some hard-up, senescent, one-time champ. Only the purses and the tent pole are bigger now, the big top drenched with the faux glitter of just-add-water celebrities. And still the rubes come.
“Jake Paul is an amazing businessman and it’s amazing what he’s done for the sport,” said Taylor, dutifully reciting the script upon arriving in Dallas last week.
“He’s one of the biggest names in boxing. Myself and Amanda have this amazing opportunity as well. On Netflix, many people are going to see women’s boxing, maybe for the first time. I think the fight in Madison Square Garden was very historic and inspired a lot of young girls into the sport.”
Paul’s MVP promotional outfit are no doubt crowing that the Irishwoman’s rematch with Serrano is one of two women’s world title fights on the card as part of an evening they are billing rather ambitiously as “the most watched event in boxing history”.
Certainly, Melinda Watpool and Shadasia Green doing battle for the vacant WBO super middleweight crown makes the whole affair seem quite progressive. Except it isn’t really. From Canada, Watpool is 35, took up boxing two years ago, and with seven wins from seven outings, is now, somehow, some way, on the cusp of becoming world champion.
Rising without trace, two of her victories came against opponents with one win to their name each, another was over a woman who has never won a fight. Before or since.
Watpool’s last bout in September was a trouncing of Natasha ‘The Nightmare’ Spence, a fighter who, belying her fearsome nickname, has not won a contest since 2016. Worse again, that was the second clash between the two women, 39-year-old Spence having previously lost to her compatriot just nine months before.
Green can’t be considered a serious contender either. A scroll through her more substantive 14&1 pro ledger reveals her warm-up outing for this so-called world title fight was a victory over the unfortunate Spence back in July.
If this jokeshop contest shines a negative light on the distaff side of the sport, another undercard fight looks equally suspect. Mario Barrios puts his WBC world welterweight title on the line against Abel Ramos, the 61st ranked fighter in the division, somebody with no business vying for any belt. Quality matchmaking there.
With plenty of scuttlebutt that Paul’s victory in the main event is predetermined in the contract, it’s almost like this is not a serious night of boxing at all. Just a sorry burlesque in which the rapist is supposed to be the good guy.
Over the past decade, Tyson’s 1992 conviction for attacking Desiree Washington seems to have conveniently slipped everybody’s mind. In a remarkable metamorphosis, he’s been reimagined by gullible media and fans alike as an almost cuddly, slightly comic grandpa figure. Witness Taylor gushing overmuch about him to journalists the other day.
His history of sexual assault came back into focus this past week when it emerged another woman has refiled a lawsuit amending the date on which she alleges he raped her in 1990. Attempts by a reporter from USA Today to question Tyson about the case were quickly shut down because, presumably, Netflix didn’t want his horrific past intruding on what they are selling here. Whatever it is they are selling here.