i want to be clear that when i suggest that we can view logan and jake paul's budding boxing careers as acts of storytelling i'm not suggesting that their matches have been staged or fixed in any way it's tempting to think as much some cried foul when the first fight between logan paul and ksi ended in a majority draw suggesting the result was a bit too convenient that both fighters were talking about a rematch just minutes after the final bell only further invited suspicion given that that rematch went on to earn them nine hundred thousand dollars just for showing up now both brothers have clearly been careful in picking their fights jake paul's three victories by knockout two against former professional athletes may sound pretty impressive but watching the matches reveals all three opponents to be pretty laughable in their boxing abilities similarly logan's massive height weight reach and age advantage allowed him to easily avoid being knocked out by mayweather by clinching for dear life yeah even if it wasn't likely pretty illegal i can't see either brother wanting to fix a match both seem to want to earn the respect of the boxing establishment and to be seen as real boxers when i suggest that logan and jake paul's boxing careers are as much about storytelling as sport then i'm not really suggesting anything out of the ordinary for this is pretty much always the case with boxing joyce carrallot writes that boxing in its greatest moments suggests the bloody fifth act of classic tragedies in which that mysterious element we call plot achieves closure the build up to a boxing match is so long with whatever bad blood exists between the combatants aggravated in tense press conferences and brash interviews that the fight itself appears as the climactic distillation of a much longer narrative sometimes we actively sold these stories by the people organizing a fight muhammad ali and george foreman's rumble in the jungle for instance took place in zaire now the democratic republic of congo for the sole reason that the country's authoritarian dictator agreed to pay for it yet don king the fight's promoter spanned the holding of the match in africa as a political choice king arranged for the fight to be preceded by a concert featuring james brown and b.b king in order to position the match as a pan-africanist celebration of black achievement other aspects of these narratives develop more organically to stick with the same example it's hard to overstate the extent to which many white americans hated muhammad ali he was black a muslim outspoken on issues of racial injustice and eight years previously had been stripped of his boxing license and sent to prison for refusing to serve in the vietnam war george foreman by contrast wore his patriotism with pride during the NUMBER_TOKEN olympic games just days after john carlos and tommy smith had lowered their heads and raised gloved fists in protest at the conditions suffered by black americans foreman had celebrated his gold medal by pointedly and proudly waving a u.s flag each boxer thus represented a very different response to racism in america this ensured that most people viewed the fight as far more than a simple sporting contest and instead as a playing out of
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