Jake Paul is 4-0 as a professional boxer after a split decision victory over Tyron Woodley, the former UFC welterweight champion, at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Sunday. It was a relatively convincing victory, despite a judge’s scorecard, but it wasn’t a tie like Paul’s three previous professional fights. The fight went on, eight rounds, when Paul had not spent more than four minutes in any of his previous three fights.
Paul and his team had a plan for this fight, but the events on Sunday night make the next step a little less clear than it has been so far in Paul’s boxing adventure.
Finding out what makes the most sense for Paul’s next fight won’t be an easy decision. After the playoffs of Nate Robinson and Ben Askren, it was pretty obvious that Paul needed a big step in competition. After this? This is not so clear.
If Woodley gets the “I love Jake Paul” tattoo, maybe the next rematch will be the next one. Or if pay-per-view purchases return from the UK, Tommy Fury could be in the spotlight.
The pressure continues on the polarizer YouTuber to fight legitimate opponents: real boxers. Paul and his team must raise the level of the opponent to keep the intrigue and interest of the fans and still find a way to protect Paul from making an excessive leap and risk mortgaging his power of attraction.
And of course, whoever Paul’s next enemy is, he has to be someone who can attract audiences.
“[The next opponent should be] someone who has the ability to make people believe he can beat Jake Paul, “Paul’s chief adviser, Nakisa Bidarian, told ESPN after the Woodley fight.” He is now at a level where he cannot have easy fights. Each fight must be raised taking into account the type of attention it demands, taking into account the pay per view, the box office power it has, and the relationship it maintains with Showtime. We love, we love, we love fighting MMA opponents. Not because they are easy, because they are not. Tonight proved it. But it involves two different segments of the population. “
Then Paul himself gave his performance a C-minus grade, which could open the door to a rematch with Woodley. In the ring during the post-fight interviews, Paul and Woodley seemed to come to an agreement that if Woodley got a tattoo that said “I love Jake Paul,” there would be revenge. Interestingly, the loser was supposed to get a tattoo anyway. At the post-fight press conference, Woodley said he believed a rematch would be a slam dunk. But Paul and Bidarian said they would only consider a second fight if Woodley got the ink.
“Get your tattoo done and we’ll consider it,” Bidarian said. “The longer you wait to get your tattoo done, the less likely you’ll be to fight me again,” Jake said. Because don’t take it seriously.
“[Paul is] happy he won, but not satisfied with the way he won. He wanted to prove he has that knockout power against Tyron Woodley. So I think he’s interested in doing it again. So, we’ll see. “
Then there’s Fury, who was incorporated into this card specifically as Paul’s next potential opponent. But Fury wasn’t impressive in a four-round unanimous decision victory over Anthony Taylor, a small-scale MMA fighter who is Paul’s battle partner. In the hallway after the fight, Fury and Paul got into a verbal altercation that almost became physical.
However, Fury seems to have fallen into disgrace with Team Paul because of his performance against Taylor. Bidarian said he will be reduced to Fury’s selling power in the UK, where he is a star courtesy of his family (he is the stepbrother of heavyweight champion Tyson) and his appearance on reality show “Love Island”.
“He wasn’t as capable as people think he is,” Bidarian said of Fury. “If he is the boxer [Paul] to face, it’s an easy conversation. But it only makes sense for Jake Paul, who is one of the highest paid fighters in the world, if we believe he can get numbers. “
One thing Bidarian can guarantee, he said, is that Paul is fully committed to boxing. There was some skepticism about this immediately after the fight, when Paul talked about taking some free time, cutting his hair, and fixing his “crooked nose” and “crooked teeth.” Bidarian said Paul told his team to come back and be ready for training camp on Sept. 13 and that the “original goal” was to fight again before the end of the year.
Paul has built a gym in Puerto Rico and “absolutely goes nowhere,” which is bad news for many people who have been stunned when Paul has made a name for himself in boxing despite his lack of experience.
“He loves this sport,” Bidarian said. “Then we’ve talked about possible opponents. I think, as you might expect, with a 24-year-old guy who’s always been there, he just wants to take a few days off. He can end up being two weeks off. And then he’ll come back.” .