Gavan Casey Reporting from Dallas

A SHORT QUEUE down in the bowels of Toyota Music Factory immediately caught the eye upon entry.

A group of six or seven people between their teens and 20s faced a sign which read, ‘TRAIN IN JAKE PAUL’S PERSONAL GYM IN VIRTUAL REALITY! Onboarding the next generation into boxing gyms across the USA.’

In front of the sign were two young lads wearing virtual reality headsets who were shadow-boxing like lunatics.

This is a joint venture by influencer-turned-boxer Paul and USA Boxing, his country’s national governing body for the amateur sport, and it can certainly do no harm.

But on a night when one entered the public workouts in downtown Dallas in search of anything real, it felt like an iffy start.

By the time Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano brought some authenticity to proceedings, the huge crowd had half-dissipated upon the disappearance of Mike Tyson from the ring.

Enough of the American public believe Tyson, who served three years in prison after being convicted of rape in 1992, to be a sufficiently reformed character that their love for him persists. Indeed, contrasting the reception for the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion with those for the other three major boxers on the bill — including fellow headliner and promoter Paul — it became demonstrably clear that this entire event is centred around Tyson irrespective of Paul’s own pedestal in pop culture.

Tyson put a lot into his pad-work for four or five minutes, showing glimpses of a residual athleticism which is frankly mind-boggling for a man of his mileage on either side of the ropes. His combinations evoked yelps and gasps from those who huddled as close to the ring as was allowed, including the handful of journalists who were officially stationed in a section of the stand that was closer to the city of Austin than it was the canvas.

Mike Tyson working the pads. Ed Mulholland / INPHO Ed Mulholland / INPHO / INPHO

Taylor’s emergence soon afterwards was received with a relative hush. She strolled to the ring as plenty of Tyson fans struck for the exit. The boxers chose their own songs for their workouts and while Taylor has traditionally left such trivialities to her team or her siblings, the couple of Christian-themed songs that boomed through the arena as she whacked the pads with trainer Ross Enamait would suggest a level of creative input from the undisputed light-welterweight champion on Tuesday night.

That she made her entrance to ‘Hall of Fame’ by The Script, then, seemed prescient in retrospect. Taylor, like her opponent Amanda Serrano, will join Mike Tyson in that all-time boxing pantheon as soon as she’s eligible, five years after her retirement. But it was a subtle means of making that point, if indeed it was her intention.

Perhaps more pertinent again, though, were her few words after she had finished her walk-around with Enamait. When she was prompted to send a message to her fans, she said, “Just thank you so much for all the support, throughout the whole years — as an amateur boxer, as a pro. I’m so grateful and on Friday night, we’re going to do it again.”

It was interesting to hear Taylor wrap her entire career into that extension of gratitude, and maybe an indication that she’s getting ready to put a bow on it.

Whether or not she bows out on Friday night, though, could depend solely on the result. The reality is that if Serrano wins and Taylor performs to near her own remaining capabilities at 38, a trilogy fight between them would demand headline status and command even more money than their respective career-high purses this Friday — roughly $8 million for Serrano, and just over $6 million for Taylor.

Let’s not mention Cr**e P**k quite yet — albeit Serrano’s de facto manager-promoter Jake Paul has already stated he’ll push for it — but Taylor will likely need to win seven or eight of her 10 rounds against Serrano at AT&T Stadium if she is to settle their rivalry once and for all.

That the slightly lower-profile Serrano, who was beaten by Taylor the first time around, is being paid more than the reigning champion only illustrates the extent to which she is the ‘home’ fighter in this equation.

This is her promoter’s show and while the vast majority of boxing judges are not corrupt in the traditional meaning of the word, plenty of them are suckers for a nice hotel and a five-course meal.

With the commercial reality of a rubber match already in the ether, a coin-flip kind of fight is bound to go the way of the Puerto Rican.

Katie Taylor warming up before working the pads. Ed Mulholland / INPHO Ed Mulholland / INPHO / INPHO

Taylor will be acutely aware of the need for her to box safely and precisely, particularly given the famous fifth round of their original bout which she survived only through supreme conditioning and the freakish force of will upon which she has built her name.

But we must once again remind ourselves that behind Taylor’s front-facing serenity is a burning lunacy.

“There’s not going to be a lot of feeling out in the second fight,” she said. “We know each other so well. We spent 10 rounds together so we’re just going to go straight into an all-out war, I think, again.

“The last fight was Fight of the Year, and this time I can’t expect anything less.”

That would most likely result in disaster from an Irish perspective but if Taylor was wired any other way, people in Ireland probably wouldn’t feel so compelled to set an alarm for 3am on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Serrano summed it up best when she was asked after her own workout as to whether she expected a boxing match or a slugfest in three days’ time.

“Katie’s a warrior,” said the hard-hitting Puerto Rican. “She might start off boxing but once I get at her, she’s going to come to fight. That’s who Katie is!”

That mark of respect from one all-time great to another yielded the only stirring moment of the night, when the few hundred fans who stayed on after Tyson’s departure broke into a hearty cheer. It struck not as being a whoop for Taylor specifically, or indeed for Serrano whose words sparked it, but more as a cheer for something real.

Jake Paul, then, who worked out last, felt like an afterthought on his own show. He has previously suggested that the concept of influencer boxing has already been virtually killed off as a mainstream concept but he seems unaware that he was an accessory to its murder.

He’s not a completely dreadful boxer but his fights typically stink the gaff out until he eventually sends his hapless opponent back to the sofa with a generous cheque.

Gambling is legal in 38 US states but, as ESPN reported on Tuesday, seven of those states will not permit betting on his bout with Tyson. They contend that it strays too far from a typical boxing match in that it will take place over eight, two-minute rounds and with more cushioned, 14-ounce gloves than the conventional 10-ounce gloves worn by heavyweights.

That Paul vowed after his workout to “outbox” Tyson — a literal 58-year-old man who pulled out of the originally scheduled bout with stomach ulcers — points towards this being a business transaction between two men who are friends outside of the ring.

It was not met with cheers.