Boxing

Boxing: Would Jake Paul accept a matchup with Tyron Woodley?

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UFC, Tyrone Woodley

Last night, the world got to witness the boxing match between Jake Paul (3-0) and former MMA world champion Ben Askren (19-2, 1 NC). Heading into the matchup it was tough to predict what was truly going to happen.

On one hand, you’d think Jake Paul would be a massive favorite. While that might not make much sense, it does when considering the opponent. Yes, it is true that Ben Askren is a former world champion in two different MMA organizations.

However, he’s also one of the worst strikers of all time when considering MMA world champions. Askren is known for his funky style of wrestling and certainly not known for his boxing.

Ben Askren was also coming off of hip replacement surgery. However, he still took the boxing match and I gave him a chance. If you’re a fan of Ben Askren or just a fan of legitimate combat sports, last night couldn’t have gone worse.

In their boxing match, Jake Paul knocked out Ben Askren in the first round. After the fight was over, Paul continued to call out MMA fighters including Askren’s teammate and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley (19-7-1).

Would a boxing match happen?

Before last night’s boxing match, there was a run in backstage between Woodley and Paul’s team. Let’s get wrong thing out of the way and be very clear about this; Tyron Woodley is not Ben Askren.

Even with Woodley having lost his last four fights inside the octagon, he is a completely different animal. I guarantee that Tyron Woodley packs a bigger punch than Jake Paul does and for that reason, I can’t see Paul accepting a boxing match with Woodley.

In reality, Jake Paul is likely going to look for another matchup against a pure grappler. Dylan Danis is likely going to be the choice or someone like that. Not someone who poses a seriously threat on the feet.

I’ll give Jake Paul credit for taking boxing seriously in terms of his preparation. However, last night does nothing in terms of earning respect in the combat sports world. He beat arguably the worst MMA striker of all time who was retired and coming off hip surgery.

Yes, you still have to go out and perform which is what Jake Paul did. However, if he wants true boxing respect, he needs to box someone that actually poses a threat. Tyron Woodley would be that opponent, but I can’t see Jake Paul taking the fight.

More to lose in tonight’s boxing match: Jake Paul or the sport of MMA?

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Tonight, we will finally see the boxing match that the world has been talking about. Former MMA world champion, Ben Askren (19-2, 1 NC MMA) takes on YouTube celebrity turned boxer Jake Paul (2-0 Boxing).

This is a freak show type of matchup in the boxing world, but this is what the sport has become as of late. Jake Paul started his career over the last few years and he has made claims that he could defeat any MMA fighter in the sport of boxing.

The first one to step up to test that theory is Ben Askren. Askren is a former welterweight champion in ONE as well as Bellator. “Funky” retired back in 2019 and he had hip surgery following his retirement.

However, when the opportunity came up to have a boxing match with Jake Paul, Askren jumped at the opportunity. Paul has been talking a big game despite his only competition being another YouTuber and a former NBA player.

Neither one of those two gentlemen looked like they had ever thrown a punch in their life. Now, Paul is taking on a former MMA world champion in the sport of boxing. Even with it being Ben Askren, this is a big step up. So who has more to lose tonight: Jake Paul or the MMA community?

Boxing vs MMA

If you had never seen Ben Askren fight, you would say that the MMA community has the most to lose tonight. Even with it being boxing instead of MMA, if Ben Askren loses to a YouTuber in an arena of combat, it would look awful for professional mixed martial artists.

That said, the clear answer tonight is Jake Paul. Jake Paul by far has more to lose in tonight’s boxing matchup than the MMA community. Paul has been talking a lot of trash, but he’s fighting one of the worst strikers that’s ever been considered a top level MMA fighter.

Askren is a tremendous wrestler, but he’s never been known for his striking. Jake Paul has said that he could defeat any MMA fighter in boxing. However, if he loses to Ben Askren, it’s devastating for his brand and it’s embarrassing.

As someone who has spent my life involved with martial arts, there’s no secret as to who I’m rooting for in tonight’s boxing matchup. I hope with everything in me that Ben Askren completely destroys Jake Paul and ends this charade.

On the other hand, maybe it’s a good thing if Jake Paul wins. If Jake Paul wins, it’s only up from here. That’s a massive problem because if he gets put up against a legit striker, he’s going to get hurt badly. Maybe that is ultimately the best outcome for the martial arts community.

Boxing Preview: Ben Askren – Jake Paul

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Tomorrow night we will get to see the boxing match that everyone has been talking about for months. YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul (2-0 Boxing) will be welcoming former MMA world champion Ben Askren (19-2, 1 NC MMA) to boxing.

If you were to tell me a few years ago that Jake Paul would have a professional boxing match scheduled against Ben Askren, I would have rolled my eyes. However, in this day in age it’s important to never be surprised by anything.

Jake Paul followed in his brother’s footsteps into the world of boxing. However, it’s apparent that Jake has taken the transition more seriously than even Logan Paul has. Jake Paul insists that he is a boxer before anything else at this stage in his life.

So far, he’s had two professional boxing matchups. One against another YouTuber and another against former NBA player Nate Robinson. Paul won both of those matchups by knockout.

After those wins, he started challenging MMA fighters to step into the boxing ring with him. While there were many volunteers, “Funky” Ben Askren is the one who signed on the dotted line to face Paul.

Ben Askren has had an incredible MMA career. He won the welterweight title in One and in Bellator before closing his career with the UFC. Askren is known for his wrestling, but he believes that he can win this boxing match against the YouTube celebrity.

Boxing Prediction

As I’m sitting here thinking about my prediction for this boxing match, I’m still shocked it’s happening. Nevertheless, let’s get into the match tomorrow night and who is ultimately going to get their hand raised.

I think Ben Askren is being way overlooked in this matchup. Granted, his boxing has never been good. His striking has never been good and throughout his career, he always relied on his wrestling.

However, unlike Jake Paul’s previous boxing opponents, Ben Askren can take a shot. Ben Askren is not going to be afraid of walking right through the shots that Jake Paul is going to be throwing tomorrow night.

Jake Paul is a lot younger, he’s fast, and has way better boxing technique. However, we’ve never seen someone walk him down and pressure him. I’m personally expecting to see a very tired Jake Paul tomorrow night.

Jake Paul is not going to knock out Ben Askren in a boxing ring. I just don’t see that happening at all. Jake Paul is going to do well early, but as the boxing match goes on, I’m expecting to see him get very tired.

I think the later rounds are all going to be Ben Askren. Ultimately, I think this goes to a decision and it’s going to be close. However, this is the world of boxing and Triller can’t afford to have Askren win. No matter how the fight goes tomorrow, if it goes to the cards, I lean towards Jake Paul getting the nod.

Prediction: Jake Paul by Split Decision

One Championship’s Eddie Alvarez to box Oscar De La Hoya?

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Last week, Eddie Alvarez (30-8, 1 NC) made his third appearance under the One Championship banner. In the promotion’s debut on primetime US television, The Underground King took on Iuri Lapicus in the opening matchup.

Alvarez was looking to pickup a win that would set him up with a shot at the One lightweight championship. The Underground King has said that capturing a title in One would make him feel like the greatest lightweight of all time.

However, Alvarez is going to have to wait a little longer on that shot at the One title. Last week he was disqualified after landing several shots to the back of the head of his opponent.

Alvarez now has to sit on the sidelines and watch everything play out. One‘s lightweight champion, Christian Lee (14-3), defends his title tonight on TNT. After tonight’s fight, Lee is expected to take some time off as his wife is expecting a child.

With that, Alvarez might be on the shelf for a bit. However, he doesn’t plan on being inactive. The One lightweight is actually in ‘serious talks’ about a boxing matchup with boxing legend, Oscar De La Hoya.

One vs Boxing

Alvarez told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that De La Hoya’s camp had reached out about boxing the One Championship lightweight. De La Hoya announced just a few weeks ago that he would be making his return to boxing. 

Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t boxed in almost thirteen years and he is 48 years old. However, De La Hoya feels the competitive itch again and it looks like he has his eyes set on a potential matchup with an MMA fighter.

Alvarez isn’t some run of the mill fighter here. Were talking about a former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion. Had Alvarez won last week, he would be for sure challenging for the One lightweight title soon.

However, with no clarity on the One title situation and no timeline on his next bout, Alvarez is interested in the boxing matchup. Talks are still early, but according to the former MMA world champion, they are serious. This will definitely be something to watch over the coming weeks.

Anderson Silva agrees to boxing match with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

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Former UFC great Anderson Silva is heading to the boxing ring. TMZ Sports was the first to report late last night that former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva (34-11, 1 NC in MMA) has agreed to box Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (52-5-1 in boxing).

The event will take place on June 19th and it will be in Mexico. Back in 2012, Chavez Jr was looked at as one of the best boxers in the world. The son of boxing great, Julio Cesar Chavez, was 46-0-1 and the WBC World Middleweight Champion.

However, over the last eight years, it hasn’t been the same story for Chavez Jr. Chavez Jr finished Andy Lee back in 2012 to retain his title, but after that, Chavez Jr has gone just 6-5 inside the squared circle.

Now, he has been in there with some of the best that boxing has to offer. Back in 2017, Chavez Jr did take on Canelo Alvarez, but ultimately lost a decision. Chavez Jr had two boxing matches in 2020 where he went 1-1. His last one came against Jeyson Minda and he won by TKO.

Anderson Silva to Boxing

At one point, Anderson Silva was being looked at as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. When 2012 ended, Silva was the UFC’s middleweight champion and he had a record of 33-4.

However, since his win against Stephen Bonnar in 2012, Silva went just 1-7, 1 NC in his last nine fights. The UFC wanted Silva to retire, but he wanted to continue in combat sports whether it be MMA or boxing.

The UFC released Silva from his contract after his loss to Uriah Hall back in October. From there, Silva has been trying to figure out what he’s wanted to do. There were limited MMA offers, but there were some intriguing boxing matches.

Roy Jones Jr even called for a boxing match with Silva. Silva supposedly had a couple of offers on the table, but ultimately decided on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr fight. Worth nothing that Silva has had two pro boxing matches early in his career and he’s 1-1.

Boxing series set between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua

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The biggest potential matchup in boxing is set. Promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed with ESPN today that the fights between the heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury (30-0-1) and Anthony Joshua (24-1) are signed.

The two men will meet in a two-fight series to unify the boxing heavyweight championships. The current target is for the first fight to take place in July while the second fight would take place just before the end of the year.

The two heavyweight champions will share a 50/50 split in terms of pay for the first matchup. In the second matchup, whoever won the first fight will get the higher of a 60/40 share in terms of the payout.

At the moment, the promoters are currently working with about nine different locations to host the opening matchup. It appears that the Middle East is likely to secure the first of the two boxing matchups. However, that is far from a done deal at this time.

More importantly, we are finally going to see some clarity in the heavyweight division. Instead of their being two heavyweight champions, by the end of 2021, we will see one universal heavyweight boxing champion.

Boxing’s Best

All of the boxing titles that Anthony Joshua currently holds, Tyson Fury once held. Back in 2015, Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschoko to win the four heavyweight titles that Anthony Joshua currently holds.

However, that was the last time Fury had those titles. After some issues outside of the ring, Fury took almost three years off from competing. The heavyweight division moved on and Anthony Joshua rose to the top.

However, Joshua did have a slip up against Andy Ruiz. Joshua lost in his first matchup with Ruiz before outpointing him to regain the heavyweight crown in late 2019. When Tyson Fury returned to boxing, he seemed focused on the WBC heavyweight title that was held by Deontay Wilder.

Fury and Wilder fought to a draw in their first matchup, although, most believe that Fury won. In the second matchup, Fury didn’t let it get to the judges. He stopped Wilder to become the WBC heavyweight champion of the world.

Now, we are going to see these two great heavyweights unify the boxing championships. It’s an interesting two-fight deal, but we should be in for two great matchups this year.

Celebrity Boxing Roundup: Jose Canseco Loses To Barstool Intern

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This week featured a large amount of action in the celebrity boxing realm. Arguably the greatest boxer of all time dropped a hit list featuring several high profile names. The week also featured a bout between former MLB Star Jose Canseco and a Barstool Sports Intern that left Canseco on the mat in seconds. This led some to believe the 56-year-old Canseco took a dive in order to collect a check. So with all the action, here is your celebrity boxing roundup.

Mayweather Wants The Pauls & 50 Cent

Floyd Mayweather (50-0) was slated to face Youtuber and Podcaster Logan Paul (0-1) in a bout on February 20th. However, due to what both sides are claiming as “COVID and Business Issues,” the fight has been postponed. Mayweather originally planned to fight Paul before heading to Japan to continue his exhibition slate there. Now, according to his Instagram, he has two other fights he wants following the Paul bout before he heads to Japan.

Mayweather addressed the postponement of the bout with Paul before going on to call out to other celebrities. The first challenge was thrown out to Jake Paul (2-0). Jake, the younger Paul brother, has taken the boxing world by storm to this point with, most notably, his knockout of former NBA star Nate Robinson on the Tyson v Jones undercard. Jake is slated to fight former MMA Star Askren on April 17th in what will be Askren’s boxing debut. Following that, though, it looks like Mayweather wants to take both Pauls out as he stated, “and if Jake can get past his next opponent Ben Asken, I will have an exhibition with him as well.” Mayweather went on in another post to take shots at the younger Paul and the way he treats African Americans.

Aside from the Pauls, Mayweather also issued a challenge to popular rapper Curtis Jackson better known as 50 Cent, who has had disagreements with Mayweather in the past. With the two taking verbal jabs at one another about reading capabilities and size. 50 Cent has no known professional boxing experience, but he trains with boxing often and boxed when he was a kid.

Mayweather is evidently looking to capitalize on the lure of celebrity boxing in order to make significant money, as recent payperview trends have proven that it is a viable alternative to other less lucrative bouts he could take. All three of his intended bouts shouldn’t give Mayweather too much of a challenge if he ultimately decides to fight each.

Jose Canseco’s Money Grab

On this past Friday night, at Barstool Sports boxing event, Rough N Rowdy, the headline bout was former MLB star Jose Canseco against Barstool Intern William Cotter, better known as Billy Football. The intern is a former college football player who has spent a bulk of his time in college working for Pardon My Take, a Barstool podcast. In the bout, Billy ambushed Canseco knocking him out in the first ten seconds. This led to many speculating Canseco took a dive and threw the bout, given he said he has had a shoulder tear for 3-4 months. Canseco has been a part of speculation about throwing bouts for money in the past, and this has furthered that even more.

Boxing exhibition between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul is postponed

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Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The boxing exhibition between Floyd Mayweather (50-0) and Logan Paul (0-1-1) has been postponed. Paul announced the news on his podcast, Impaulsive, yesterday. The matchup was set to take place on February 20th. 

While there seemed to be a lot of hype around the boxing exhibition when it was first announced, interest has seemed to die off. When the news started to leak that the boxing match was off, many wondered if the lack of interest was the reason.

However, Logan Paul denied these yesterday on his show. Paul said that the boxing match with Mayweather had broken ever pre-fight PPV sales record and was tracking to be a massive success on PPV. Of course, we don’t know if that’s actually true.

Logan Paul said that the boxing match was being postponed for a number of reasons. He said that the two sides ran into some business issues at the last minute. There is also the desire to have a packed arena for this matchup. There was no timetable given on when the match will be rescheduled for.

Will the boxing match happen?

Logan Paul was pretty adamant on his show that the match will still take place. He said that the two sides just had to land some details and a new timeline, but the match is going to still take place.

Outside of a confirmation, there has been no word from the Mayweather camp on future plans. It seems like the sides are sure that the boxing match will still take place, however, the vagueness surrounding the postponement doesn’t sound promising.

Mayweather hasn’t boxed since he returned to face Conor McGregor back in 2017. Floyd Mayweather is one of the greatest to ever do it and he’s a much smaller man than Logan Paul. However, Mayweather was still a massive favorite considering Paul’s skillset.

Logan Paul is not a scrub in the boxing ring by any stretch, but he’s also not an elite boxer. Despite the massive size advantage, nobody was really giving Logan Paul a chance in this exhibition. I’ll be interested to see if this boxing match gets put back together.

Jake Paul’s next boxing match will be against Ben Askren

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Well, Jake Paul (2-0) has his next boxing match set. Paul has been calling out MMA fighters and challenging them to box and it looks like he’s found a willing competitor. Per ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Paul will be boxing Ben Askren (19-2, 1 NC in MMA).

The boxing match will take place on April 17th. The match will actually go head-to-head with a UFC fight night that is being headlined by a middleweight clash between Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker. 

Jake Paul has been saying for the last couple of months that he wanted a boxing match with an MMA fighter. He’s been very vocal about his desire to take on the former UFC two-division champion, Conor McGregor.

However, discussions with the McGregor camp were never serious. McGregor just competed and lost to Dustin Poirier last Saturday at UFC 257. McGregor seems to be putting boxing on the backburner for now to focus on MMA.

However, Ben Askren is willing to jump in there to represent MMA. The former world champion mixed martial artist has been retired for the last year and a half after losing to Demian Maia back in October of 2019.

MMA vs Boxing?

There were plenty of MMA fighters that were vocal about their desire to step into the boxing ring with Jake Paul. Michael Bisping being one of those fighters, however, it’s Askren that will make the walk on April 17th.

I have to say, this is the easiest fight Paul could have taken against an MMA fighter. Ben Askren is not a good striker at all. Or at least he’s never shown the ability to be a good striker in a MMA fight.

Askren is known for his incredible wrestling and his strength. Those are not going to be tools he can use in a boxing match with Jake Paul. I would have to imagine that Paul would be the better favorite when the two meet up in April.

Again, Jake Paul has been calling out MMA fighters, but he hasn’t fought anyone yet. His two boxing wins are against another YouTube celebrity and a former NBA player. Askren is his toughest test yet, but it’s still not that great of a test. Should be an interesting match when the two meet up.

UFC: Conor McGregor issues response to Jake Paul

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Conor McGregor, UFC

Conor McGregor (22-4) is getting prepared for his return at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier (26-6, 1 NC). McGregor appears to be as focused as he’s ever been. He also looks like he’s in incredible shape ahead of his return this Saturday.

One thing that McGregor hasn’t addressed in the past couple of weeks is the callout from Jake Paul. It doesn’t seem that really any reporter has asked the question, but that changed when he was interviewed by BT Sport.

Towards the end of his interview, McGregor was asked about YouTubers calling him out. The former UFC champion made it clear that he really doesn’t take it seriously and he believes that Jake Paul is a little confused.

“He seems like a confused little kid to me. Now, he’s willing to get in there so I don’t know what’s going to happen. You never know,” McGregor said to BT Sport. While his tone seemed to indicate he doesn’t take it seriously, he at least left the door open for the potential fight.

UFC’s McGregor – Jake Paul

McGregor has made it clear that his focus is on another UFC run at lightweight. However, he does have interest in boxing. He’s openly talked about his desire to box Manny Pacquiao and he alluded to that in this interview.

It was announced yesterday that Paul would be headlining a boxing card on April 17th. However, we do not know the opponent of that bout just yet. Paul has made it clear that he wants to box an MMA fighter in his next bout.

I think it’s safe to say that he’s not going to be boxing the former UFC champion next. I’m very curious to see who Paul ends up boxing in April, and if he wants to be taken seriously, he needs to box someone from a combat sports background.