On Sept. 14, 2019, Otto Wallin -- an undefeated, if little-known heavyweight from Sweden -- was delivered to the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas as a kind of human sacrifice, intended to fall quietly and presumably early at the feet of Tyson Fury. Instead, he punched open a huge gash above Fury's right eye early in the fight, and lost a unanimous decision that seemed closer than the scorecards indicated. It was a gruesome night, but also, in a way that's peculiar to boxing, an unexpectedly great one. "Congrats to Otto," Fury conceded after the fight. "The Viking Warrior!"
Wallin, now 28-3, remains a world-class heavyweight, still toiling for that last best shot. He has been in the game for two full decades, turning pro in 2013, and in all the years since, he has been stopped by only one man. That would be Anthony Joshua, the two-time unified heavyweight champion, former Olympic gold medalist and among the division's hardest punchers. "I've never been hit like that," said Wallin, whose corner had the good sense to throw in the towel in December 2023 and get him to a hospital, where doctors surgically repaired the nose that Joshua broke. "Fury put a lot of weight behind his punches, but Joshua's shots were sharp, very hard and fast. Jake Paul can get hurt."
Friday night, he means, when Paul, the erstwhile influencer whose only experience above 200 pounds came against 58-year-old Mike Tyson, takes on that same Joshua, in a bout sanctioned by those diligent public servants at the Florida State Athletic Commission.
When Wallin tells me "it's a dangerous fight," he's not talking about a busted nose, either. "I mean, Jake Paul can actually get hurt," he said.
Then again, that's the point. The prospect of lasting damage is the sell here. Oleksandr Usyk, the world's greatest heavyweight who twice survived Joshua, might as well have been writing promo copy when he said, "If Anthony Joshua wants, he can kill this guy ... I will pray for Jake Paul."
The year after Wallin lost to Fury, Paul debuted against somebody named AnEsonGib. Paul is now 12-1 and has become a promotional force. As I've said before, Paul has been good for boxing. But this fight is not. It's not sport. It's stunt, a descendant of Evel Knievel's ill-fated attempt to jump Snake River Canyon. And it's a disgrace that the FSAC has sanctioned it with the same lack of transparency that we have come to expect from boxing's sanctioning bodies.
I'm not a prude here. Nor a hater. I don't expect anyone to get seriously hurt, especially not when the promoter and fighter are one and the same. My bet's on a muffled affair in the name of commerce. But there's still that terrible chance, and now (thank you, Florida), a terrible precedent. What happens the next time a promoter wants to match a two-time unified heavyweight champion with a YouTuber-turned-boxer? What's even more dangerous, this fight becomes a reasonable argument behind every proposed mismatch.
"This particular bout is not something I would be comfortable with," said Andy Foster, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission. "And I nominated Tim Shipman for president."
Tim Shipman is the executive director of the FSAC. The presidency to which Foster refers is the Association of Boxing Commissions, a consortium of state regulatory agencies designed, in theory, to bring saneness and sanity to the business of protecting fighters. Foster held the position for seven years and last summer nominated Florida's Shipman, who, of course, vowed to "protect the fighters as best we can."
When I reached him Monday, however, Shipman made it quite clear that he's not in the business of answering questions on the subject, at least not when there's a big gate on the line in his home state. Instead, he explained that being quoted by reporters was not in his job description and directed me to bureaucrats in Tallahassee. I was asked to give them the questions in advance, which, against my better judgment, I did. Among them:
Did the medical staff weigh in on this decision to sanction the fight?
What factors allowed the commission to overcome the great gaps in size and experience to sanction the fight?
If Jake Paul were a lesser-known 12-1 cruiserweight and not a promoter, would this fight have been allowed?
Obviously, this is a lucrative attraction for the state of Florida. Did that factor into the decision?
Little surprise, I heard nothing from the bureaucrats in Tallahassee. If you ask me, that was the point. But it's worth remembering the next time Florida, or the ABC for that matter, makes a debatable decision on the issue of fighter safety. Whose side are they really on?
Truth is, I put Foster in an uncomfortable position. He had enough respect for Shipman, a former Marine sergeant, to nominate him. And he does not have beef with Paul. "I think Jake Paul is a good fighter," Foster said. "He's tough, courageous, ain't scared. Probably no one gets hurt. But I'd like to see him get a few wins at heavyweight before something like this."
I asked Foster if his fellow commissioners feel pressure to sanction suspect, if lucrative, fights. "There is some pressure," he conceded. "I have heard that."
And California? "The state has never put pressure on me to put on a particular fight," he said. "Not that I get it right all the time."
One of the things he got right was disallowing a 2021 bout between Evander Holyfield, 58, and Vitor Belfort, 44, a former UFC light heavyweight champion. Holyfield, who hadn't fought in a decade, took the fight on eight days' notice after Oscar De La Hoya pulled out because of COVID-19. "I had no sense that Evander had even been training," Foster said.
As it happened, Holyfield-Belfort -- featuring then-former President Donald Trump calling the action on Sept. 11 -- was held in Florida. Holyfield, the most courageous fighter I've ever covered, was knocked out in 109 seconds.
Following the bout, Florida suspended Holyfield's license for 30 days on medical grounds.