ARLINGTON, Texas – The fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul did more than depress people clinging to the image of The Baddest Man on the Planet in his prime.
It presented the uncommon experience of watching a boxing match in a building designed for football.
A moment that helped underscore that challenge is when spectators sitting in the upper deck at AT&T Stadium booed the video display boards.
A graphic reading “PAUL vs. TYSON” had covered up the video feed from an action-packed fight in the boxing ring set up at midfield.
Booooo! Boooo!
The target of the boos also was a savior.
Those two center-hung video display boards are 160 feet wide, 72 feet tall and proved essential for anyone in the upper decks. Unlike football, the boxing matches were confined inside a 20 by 20 foot ring. And the approximate distance between the boxing ring and the upper deck is approximately one million miles.
Among the spectators: Albert Barth, 49, who said he drove three hours from his home in Lawton, OK, just for the experience. A few times, Barth quickly looked away from the display boards when they showed a nasty gash over the eye of boxer Amanda Serrano. Thanks to the display boards, the gash appeared about the size of a six-story building.
In the same area of the upper deck, a reporter flinched twice when Serrano threw punches that appeared to be flying out of the display boards. (I can disclose the reporter works for USA TODAY Sports.)
But none of this seemed to disturb Sheila Borrero, who when asked about the experience of watching boxing in a football stadium exclaimed, “It’s lit!’’
Indeed, between fights, the edge of the boxing ring was lit red with white lettering. None of which could be read without use of the Hubble Telescope.
Borrero, 30, had flown in from her home in Lowell, Mass., without a telescope. But she did have a friend, Javier Veliz, who flew in from Queens, N.Y.
“Of course I want to be down in front,’’ Borrero said, “but I’m not paying $1,000.’’
Of course, ringside seats on Friday were listed for $50,000.
And the pretty video display boards, they did not make Tyson look any younger or faster during a dispiriting loss to Jake Paul.
Dallas Cowboys fans might attest that AT&T Stadium is a great place even to watch a bad football game. And the same can be said about watching bad boxing.