You don’t need to look far in the sports of boxing and MMA to find people with strong feelings about the always divisive Jake Paul. The Youtuber turned main event boxer has quickly become one of the biggest attractions in combat sports, and those voices talking about him have gotten even louder over the last week after Paul’s most recent fight ended with a brutal knockout of former UFC champ Tyron Woodley. Video of the devastating right hand exploded on social media, and the whole thing did not sit very well with another former UFC champ Daniel Cormier, who hasn’t been shy with his Paul opinions in the past.
The UFC legend appeared on ESPN following the KO and host Ryan Clark asked for his thoughts. He did not hold back. Alternating between amused and a little annoyed, he talked about what a “bad look” it is for former MMA greats to be getting hammered by Jake Paul and a bad look to be getting on social media afterwards to clown yourself. Here’s a portion of his quote…
He got (Woodley) with a right hook. It was bad. He hit him so hard, dude, and then T Wood goes face down. Bro, T Wood is my boy, I love T Wood, but that was not good. That’s a bad look. And you know what’s worse? The after. I don’t know what T Wood is doing on social media. He posted the knockout… It’s like Jake Paul is beating these dudes so bad that they start to make fun of themself.
Daniel Cormier didn’t limit his opinions to the Tyron Woodley fight either. He also discussed Ben Askren having a similar response to getting knocked out by Jake Paul. Clearly Cormier just doesn’t understand the entertainment/ showmanship mentality of it at all. He also thinks people are underestimating how talented Paul is and underestimating how difficult it is to fight him under boxing rules rather than MMA rules. Here’s some more of his quote that discusses that…
They’re going to fight this kid under his rule set. This kid has all the time in the world to train. This kid has money. This kid has ways of improving. Honestly, he’s much better than people want to give him credit for. The kid can fight a little bit. The reality is this, my biggest issue is these guys go in there to fight this dude, they lose to him, Ben Askren was immediately almost making fun of himself. It’s almost like you’re so embarrassed that you lost to the Disney kid or the YouTuber that you start to almost become self depreciating. Bro, it’s bad. It’s bad what’s happening to these dudes.
Exactly who might step up and take on Jake Paul next is anyone’s guess. He was originally scheduled to fight Tommy Fury, but the boxer had to pull out because of injury, which led to Woodley stepping in. The social media star is reportedly generating huge returns on these PPV events he’s putting together, and the potential payouts for new opponents are tremendous.
It’s hard to walk away from a multi-million dollar guarantee, especially when it’s allegedly higher than many fighters are making in the UFC. So, maybe we’ll see Fury as originally intended, or maybe we’ll see someone with a bigger name step up to cash a check and potentially end Paul’s undefeated run.
Either way, Jake Paul is hotter right now than he’s ever been. There was some worry that he may have been losing some momentum and public interest off his early highs, but his knockout of Woodley put an end to that narrative. So, now we all just have to wait and see which direction he’s going to go in next, which is exactly where he wants us. As for Cormier, it sounds like he’ll be watching, though don’t expect him to be smiling if another MMA legend goes down and then jokes about it afterwards. Maybe that’ll be enough to finally get him to re-enter the ring and handle Paul himself.
