Somehow, however unlikely, Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua wasn’t the most embarrassing boxing match to unfold this weekend.
While Paul vs. Joshua was sloppy and often boring, Paul actually came in with a game plan: try to stay on his bike and avoid the power shots of the much larger heavyweight champion.
In contrast, Chase Demoor and Andrew Tate reached disappointing levels of disappointment on Saturday, managing to be so unbelievably bad that Paul-Joshua immediately became a distant memory. One that almost made you nostalgic.
The card headlined Misfits Boxing’s ‘Fight Before Christmas’ in Dubai and marked Tate’s first action in boxing since a 2010 victory over the UFC’s Luke Barnatt, who now happens to be one of Tate’s coaches.
Much has been written about Andrew Tate, who gets way more ink dedicated to him than he’s worth. Tate, a multi-accused rapist and sex trafficker who tries to play off his gruesome persona as a “manosphere” influencer, has become a fringe social media star in recent years. One that mainly targets listless, impressionable young men.
Tate has appeared at the UFC’s Dana White’s side, among other things, even when numerous jurisdictions and even entire countries (including Romania, where he is alleged to have forced cam girls into what amounts to non-consensual sexual slavery) wanted him gone or in jail.
Earlier this year, Tate was announced as the new CEO of Misfits Boxing, replacing co-founder KSI (and leading to a fiery response from KSI himself). The outrage was expected, as Tate is still under investigation for human trafficking and rape, among other things 21 charges are being filed against him in Britainannounced on the eve of Saturday’s Misfits card in Dubai.
Yet the 39-year-old Tate, comfortably away from Britain, was free to enter the ring against Chase Demoor, the heavyweight champion of Misfits Boxing – and perhaps one of the sloppiest boxing champions he himself has ever seen. While Tate was never highly regarded during the height of his kickboxing career about a decade ago, championships or not, Demoor’s form has proven incredibly sloppy, often taking himself out of position with clubbing blows and poorly timed strikes.
And even with that in mind, Demoor took the lead in the fight after three rounds on Saturday on the Fight Before Christmas card in Dubai. 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 down and couldn’t connect with Demoor even though the champion had his hands dangerously low.
Soon, some of Demoor’s own sloppy punches started connecting, leaving Tate bleeding from one eye. At times his expression seemed somewhere between bewilderment and regret, as if he were asking, “What the hell am I doing here anyway?” Although a possible knockdown late in the fight was considered a push, by then there was no chance of Tate winning it anyway.
Demoor started stacking up and firing wild uppercuts. Often too slow to connect, but Tate did nothing in response. His last action took place in 2020 in the kickboxing world in Romania, but it seemed that he had not seen a live fight in more than a decade.
Returning to the ring after years away from combat sports was never anything more than a cash grab and an Andrew Tate headline, but putting on an ugly performance against an opponent so ridiculously sloppy only hurts his ‘Top G’ brand. Not surprisingly, after losing a majority decision (one judge had it tied), Tate was non-committal about continuing his martial arts career.
Regardless, Tate’s next fight will be in the legal arena, where he faces charges of rape, human trafficking, actual bodily harm and controlling prostitution for profit in connection with the alleged abuse of three women, along with his brother Tristan, who himself faces eleven similar charges. In Romania, where Tate was imprisoned for a time and later held under house arrest while crimes against women were investigated, the specter of further legal trouble looms.
After his win on Saturday, Chase Demoor called out Tommy Fury, the 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)
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