YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul has made himself a household name. Consider this…Paul has earned a cool $123 million in his short boxing career which ranks as fourth most among current boxers. Most of those earnings stem from his pay-per-view events. While he has many fans, he has just as many if not more detractors and I’m one of them.
The dislike for Jake Paul stems from how he stages his bouts hand picking opponents that have little to no past boxing experience as well as fighting men that are either past their prime in their respective athletic fields or so old they have no business stepping into a squared circle much like Mike Tyson did recently in being embarrassed by Paul.
The shame of it all is that while Jake Paul rakes in millions, other boxers who have spent most of their lives trying to get ahead in the game and fight towards a championship are getting paid next to nothing in comparison to Paul. It doesn’t seem fair, and all the while Jake Paul is making a mockery of what once was a great sport.
Paul’s latest request for an opponent was former UFC champion Conor McGregor who hasn’t fought in an MMA bout in nearly three years. He’s also lost three of his last four fights, but the UFC rejected his request to fight Paul so this won’t happen. My personal feeling is that McGregor should not be allowed to fight anywhere ever again given the fact that just recently was ordered to pay a woman $250,000 for what she claims was rape.
This is not the first time McGregor has had legal problems with his attacks on women and all the while his longtime girlfriend stands by him with their four children all while he admitted to having sexual relations with other women. If McGregor was an athlete in any of the four major sports, he would have been suspended and perhaps thrown out for his encounter with women and legal problems. But the UFC allows him to stay in their sport.
With Jake Paul, he’s made more than some of the professional boxing champions currently holding a belt. Terence Crawford is one of the finest boxers in the sport yet his $17.5 million pales in comparison to Jake Paul. Nick Ball at 21-0-1 and the current featherweight champion is not even among the top 20 highest paid fighters. The WBA lightweight champion is Gervonta Davis and has knocked out 28 of 30 opponents while yet to lose a fight and yet his paychecks do not put him in the top 20 either.
But there is Jake Paul, the fourth highest paid boxer and yet to fight a ranked opponent. The one blotch on his record is a fight he had with Tyson Fury’s stepbrother Tommy Fury. Fury is a pro fighter and guess what? He defeated Paul in a split decision showing the YouTuber how to really box. If you look at Paul’s record, it’s a mishmash of old men and opponents from other sports.
His second fight was with Nate Robinson, a former pro basketball player in the NBA. Next up was Ben Askren, made famous for being knocked out in 15 seconds in a UFC fight. Askren is a wrestler and had no experience wearing boxing gloves. It showed as Paul scored a TKO in the first round. Then there was UFC fighter and former champion Tyron Woodley, a shadow of his old self and he lost a decision to Paul and was then embarrassingly knocked out in the rematch.
Other opponents included Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva, Mike Perry, and then that fiasco with Mike Tyson. Many people see this Jake Paul traveling road show more of a traveling circus. Many believe his fights are fixed. Evidence points to that. But what is his end game? There is no chance he will ever be a boxing champion. I contend that the first time he fights a top 10 fighter he will lose and lose miserably. That is unless they fix that one too.
The Diaz fight was probably set up. The Tyson one for sure. Therefore, Jake is a joke. He cannot go away soon enough. He is obnoxious and just the flavor of the moment for many. His method of hand-picking opponents cannot last forever and at some point, people will lose interest in paying lots of money for a pay-per-view fight that you already know the result before it even begins.
