Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew from her Olympic boxing match in Paris on Thursday after just 46 seconds of competition, refusing to continue against Imane Khelif. The Algerian, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu?ting, remains at the center of an ongoing gender controversy after reportedly failing eligibility tests back in 2023.
“I’m used to suffering,” Carini told reporters following her loss to Khelif. “I’ve never taken a punch like that, it’s impossible to continue. I’m nobody to say it’s illegal. I got into the ring to fight. But I didn’t feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.”
Jake Paul, celebrity boxer and owner of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), recently offered Carini a spot on one of his upcoming fight cards.
“To Angela Carini: although your dreams couldn’t come true today because of the crazy agendas that are at play in our world at the moment, I would love to offer you to fight on an MVP undercard, to show the world your talents on a fair platform and not against a man,” Paul wrote on Twitter. “Internet, help this find her.”
Paul is scheduled to face Mike Tyson later this year on Netflix but MVP routinely schedules prospect cards for amateur pugilists on their way to the pro ranks. No word yet on where Carini would fit into that schedule — or if she would even be interested — but it would certainly provide a marked increase in exposure.
For both Carini and Paul.