Somehow, however implausibly, Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua was not the most embarrassing boxing match to unfold this weekend.
While Paul vs. Joshua was sloppy and often dull, Paul actually entered with a game plan: try to stay on his bike and avoid the power shots of the much larger heavyweight champ.
In contrast, reaching craptacular levels of disappointment on Saturday, Chase Demoor vs. Andrew Tate managed to be so incredibly bad that Paul-Joshua instantly became a distant memory. One you were almost nostalgic for.
The card headlined Misfits Boxing’s “Fight Before Christmas” in Dubai, and marked Tate’s first action in boxing since a 2010 win over the UFC’s Luke Barnatt, who now happens to be one of Tate’s coaches.
Lots has been written about Andrew Tate, who gets far more ink dedicated to him than he’s worth. A multi-time accused rapist and sex trafficker attempting to play off his heinous personality as a “manosphere” influencer, Tate has become a fringe social media star in recent years. One primarily targeting listless, impressionable young men.
Tate has turned up alongside the UFC’s Dana White among others, even as any number of jurisdictions and even whole countries (including Romania, where he allegedly forced camgirls into what amounts to non-consensual sexual slavery) wanted him either gone or in jail.
Earlier this year, Tate was announced as the new Misfits Boxing CEO, replacing co-founder KSI (and sparking a fiery reaction from KSI himself). The outcry was expected, given Tate is still under investigation for trafficking and rape, including 21 charges being brought against him in the UK, announced on the eve of Saturday’s Misfits card in Dubai.
Still, comfortably away from the United Kingdom, the 39-year old Tate was free to enter the ring against Chase Demoor, the Misfits Boxing heavyweight champ — and perhaps one of the sloppiest of boxing champs ever seen himself. While Tate was never regarded highly during the height of his kickboxing career a decade or so ago, championships or not, Demoor’s form has proven incredibly sloppy, often taking himself out of position with clubbing punches and ill-timed attacks.
And even with that in mind, after three rounds on Saturday at the Fight Before Christmas card in Dubai, Demoor was pulling ahead in the fight. Clinches came early and often. Neither man landed much early, aside from a right or left here and there. But as the fight progressed, Tate slowed, unable to connect with Demoor even as the champ had his hands dangerously low.
Soon, a number of Demoor’s own sloppy punches began to connect, with Tate bloodied along one eye. At times, his facial expression read somewhere between bewilderment and regret, as if asking “what the hell am I even doing here?” While a possible knockdown late in the fight was ruled a push, by then, there was no chance Tate was winning it anyway.
Demoor began piling on, firing wild uppercuts. Too slow to connect more often than not, but Tate was doing nothing in response. His last action had come in 2020 in the kickboxing realm in Romania, yet it looked like he hadn’t seen a live fight in over a decade.
Coming back to the ring after years away from combat sports was never more than a cash and headline-grab by Andrew Tate, but putting on a performance that ugly against an opponent so ludicrously sloppy only hurts his “Top G” brand. Not surprisingly, after losing a majority decision (one judge had the fight a draw), Tate was non-committal about continuing his combat sports career.
Regardless, Tate’s next fight will be in the legal arena, as he faces counts of rape, human trafficking, actual bodily harm, and controlling prostitution for gain related to the alleged abuse of three women, alongside his brother, Tristan, who faces 11 similar charges of his own. In Romania, where Tate was for a time jailed and later held under house arrest as crimes against women were investigated, the specter of further legal trouble looms.
Following his victory on Saturday, Chase Demoor called out Tommy Fury, brother of heavyweight Tyson Fury and perhaps best known as the first man to beat Jake Paul in the ring.
Official Result: Chase Demoor def. Andrew Tate by majority decision (57-57, 58-56, 58-56)
