This was hardly a classic boxing match, but Jake Paul's KO of Mike Perry was plenty entertaining and loads of fun

Jake Paul and Mike Perry just finished, well, whatever it was we should call that. They were in a ring at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. They had gloves on their hands and were throwing punches at each other, and yeah, it was billed as a boxing match.

But if we think of boxing as Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier or Sugar Ray Leonard versus Roberto Duran or Aaron Pryor against Alex Arguello, this was not that.

Those were boxing matches at the highest level, in each instance a pair of elite, finely tuned athletes plying their trade at a level few ever could.

What we saw on Saturday felt more like what you might see around closing time at the Do Drop Inn when both guys had imbibed just a bit too much.

But hey, it was fun. Maybe it wasn't boxing at the highest level, but it was entertaining, and at the end of the day, that's what  sports are supposed to be. Too often, boxing is drudgery, but that's the last thing one could say about Paul versus Perry.

Paul dropped Perry in the first, second and sixth rounds and finally stopped the man known as "The King of Violence" at 1:12 of the sixth when referee Christopher Young had seen enough of Perry stumbling around the ring.

Perry, the former UFC fighter turned bare knuckle fighting king, looked like he didn't know a thing about the sweet science, but he not surprisingly, showed himself to be insanely tough. He was significantly smaller than Paul and not nearly as skilled. Perry fought with his hands at about chest level and trudged inexorably toward Paul the entire fight. He didn't move his head or shoulders. He was flat-footed. He never clinched when hurt. He threw very few punches.

Willie Pep, he's not.

There are, though, few tougher humans than Perry and even fewer who are as willing and yes, eager, to eat punches for a paycheck. 

"Man, he's tough as nails," Paul said after improving to 10-1 with his seventh win by knockout. "I'm sorry it took so long."

It was almost over before it started. The first serious right hand Paul threw landed on Perry's cheek and dropped him, though Perry was on his feet within two seconds. Paul wasn't able to fulfill his prediction of a first-round knockout because Perry has an insane desire to compete, but Perry admitted Paul was rocking him.

He didn't think the first shot was that hard, but credited Paul for his power.

"I tried, but the kid hit me hard," Perry said. "The first round when he knocked me down, you were just too heavy and kind of just knocked me over. It didn't rock me. But later on, it added up."

Both men were cut and both ate a few big shots. After scoring 10-8 rounds in Rounds 1 and 2, Paul came out looking for the finish in the third. But Perry managed to land a few punches that Paul felt. Perry also opened a cut over Paul's eye in that round.

Perry, though, couldn't sustain it because he couldn't avoid being hit. His idea of defense is to trudge forward with his hands at his side and his chin in the air.

Paul tried to move at times and fought flat-footed and whizzed big shots at Perry at others. He hit hard enough that Perry eventually crumbled, and even when he tried to get up in the sixth, it was clear he wasn't in control of his faculties and couldn't defend himself. Young made a wise choice stopping it.

"I'm way sharper, clean [than I was earlier in my career]," Paul, the social media influencer turned boxer, said. "I think he hit me with one good shot tonight. Everyone said he was going to knock me out. I made some mistakes. I didn't feel very good. It's back to the drawing board and I'm going to keep on getting better."

Paul took the Perry fight on three weeks' notice when Mike Tyson, now 58, had to pull out of a planned bout at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, because of an ulcer. The fight has been re-scheduled for Nov. 15, and Paul was talking about it as if Tyson was another fighter in his prime.

Tyson is not just another boxer in his prime. He's one of the sport's legends, but at this stage, he's seven years away from qualifying for Medicare and four years from being able to collect Social Security.

Paul, though, has a knack for making big events (and big money) out of whole cloth and if Tyson-Paul does happen, it's essentially going to be a license to print money.

"I'm down for it all," Paul said. "I love going into combat. I love going to war. This is what I was destined for. In two years, I will be the cruiserweight champion of the f*cking world."

The fun didn't stop even when the fight did. After Paul had completed his in-ring interview, his business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, handed him a phone. On the other end was UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, with long-time MMA manager/promoter Ed Soares interpreting. Paul had called out Pereira, saying he wants Pereira after he fights Tyson, and there they were talking in the ring with a TV camera there to record it for posterity.

It was that kind of a night. It wasn't conventional boxing but it was highly entertaining and a lot of fun.