Katie Taylor’s pure class overcomes Netflix’s warped fight coverage

Katie Taylor did it. Of course, she did. Like we always knew she would. And she saved her best for last. The final act of the trilogy lacked the savage intensity of the first two wars, but the more conservative nature of the fight allowed the legend from Bray to deliver a clinic in pugilism.

Anyone who had stayed up into the wee small hours of Saturday morning expecting another brutal war was disappointed. The third instalment followed a different script entirely.

The tone was set by the cagey first round where Sean Grande, Netflix’s blow-by-blow guy, pointed out ‘remarkably, only three punches connected.’ With Taylor and Amanda Serrano knowing each other inside-out, this was always going to be a different kind of fight.

‘Both boxers want to fight a cleaner fight, a smarter fight,’ André Ward explained as they were both sitting on their stools ahead of the second round.

A cleaner fight meant there was less action and none of the brutality that defined their first two battles. By the seventh round, even an accomplished ring technician such as Ward appeared to be growing a little frustrated.

‘Someone needs to step it up here,’ the former light-heavyweight and super-middleweight world champion suggested.

Maybe, the most telling image of the entire fight came at the end of that seventh round. Serrano went to land a big shot only for a typically evasive Taylor to move her head and force her opponent to miss. It was the fight in a microcosm.

The bell sounded shortly afterwards, and the Puerto Rican looked a tad despondent, even demoralised. She knew, like all of us knew, that Taylor was in complete control. The only people who didn’t seem to acknowledge that were the people calling the fight for the millions around the world. Perhaps, Netflix were hoping for one final unexpected twist.

Granted, the commentary was a vast improvement on what went down in November when White Men Can’t Jump star Rosie Perez was so disgusted by the fair verdict of the judges that she said there would be an asterisk on Taylor’s record.

The actor later retracted that wild claim, although it didn’t stop Netflix from using it as part of the promotion for the fight.

It felt like the streaming service was pulling for a Serrano win all evening. Even Ward appeared to be infected by its bias.

The former world champion is one of the most knowledgeable and incisive analysts around, but it didn’t feel like that. As early as the third round, he was suggesting that Serrano was in control of the fight on one of the many occasions that Katie made her punch thin air and landed with her own left counter.

In boxing, more than in a lot of other sports, those calling the shots for the watching public have a lot of power to shape the perception of the viewer. This is especially true when it’s a close fight.

As Sean Grande, the blow-by-blow announcer, said halfway through it – ‘the prism through which you are viewing this will influence how you feel the fight is going. If you are a Katie Taylor fan, you think she is up. If you are an Amanda Serrano fan, you will feel she is doing enough. But it will all come down to the three judges.’

And two of those three judges saw the fight as most of us did. That was the most convincing and commanding performance that Taylor had delivered against her best dance partner. It’s just that Ward, Lalia Ali and Seniesa Estrada saw things differently, maybe because Netflix wanted things to be different.

It is a small quibble on the coverage, which overall was far better than the messy production from Cowboys Stadium. The streaming giant is slowly gaining more confidence when it comes to live sport, but they might need to understand that neat narrative arcs don’t always happen in live sport.

Not like in the WWE, with whom Netflix shamelessly hitched themselves to earlier this year with a $5 billion deal and a six-part documentary series on Vince McMahon just as more horrifying allegations of sexual misconduct were coming to light about the wrestling promoter.

But it will be interesting to see if Friday night is the beginning of something for Netflix. With men’s boxing increasingly being used as a vehicle of soft power for Saudi Arabia and its Public Investment Fund, there seems to be an opening for someone to become the anchor for the continued growth of women’s boxing. Even if females can now drive in Saudi, it’s unlikely the repressive kingdom will be too bothered by putting their considerable financial weight behind women’s boxing.

There isn’t a whole lot to like about Jake Paul but, to be fair to the relentless publicity hound, he and his MVP company, for which his business partner Nakisa Bidarian is the more acceptable face, has driven the sport to new heights. MVP have signed the likes of Chantelle Cameron, who is still waiting for her trilogy fight with Taylor, and Ebaine Bridges.

The Madison Square Garden card, which had 17 world title belts on the line, was all down to MVP’s business acumen. Paul mightn’t be to your taste, but he knows how to put on and promote a show. With Netflix on board, it will be a space worth watching.

But as women’s boxing seems destined to keep growing, the big question will be if its figurehead, the fighter who has done more than anyone to bring into the sporting mainstream, will be part of that growth.

Taylor turned 39 last week. She has been at the top of her craft for 20 years now, winning her first world amateur title in 2006, and it is now 13 years since she captivated the nation with her Olympic gold in London. She has endured a fair bit of punishment in various wars against the likes of Serrano, Cameron and Delfine Persoon.

At the end of the broadcast, Ward even speculated that Taylor might have dropped a hint about retirement in her post-match interview, with Ward going on to say it’s not just the fights, but the constant sparring that takes its toll. Of course, Chantelle Cameron is now an MVP fighter, so Paul and Bidarian might be eyeing another trilogy bout with a seven-figure purse that will be hard to refuse.

But, as Katie Taylor stood in the centre of the Madison Square Garden ring with all the belts she has for her undisputed super-lightweight crown, for once, the Netflix commentary caught the moment perfectly. ‘If that is the final image we see of Katie Taylor, it is as storybook as it comes,’ Grande said.

Indeed. She has nothing left to prove, has taken her sport to unparalleled heights. She has done it all, as we knew she would. There would be no better way to go out.