By Matt Lieberman: Jake Paul got the last laugh at the expense of his doubters with his first-round knockout win over UFC star Ben Askren last weekend in a fight that pulled in 1.5 million pay-per-view buys on Triller at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
Paul (3-0, 3 KOs) enjoyed himself in gloating about his knockout win after the fight, particularly when he discovered the PPV buy total on Triller.
He says the fight generated $65 million, which is similar money to what the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr exhibition match brought in last November on Triller PPV.
The win for the 24-year-old YouTuber was so decisive that Askren subsequently retired after the fight.
Jake is now looking to find his next big-name opponent, and there’s a long list of popular fighters that he has to choose from now.
Before Jake’s PPV buy rate total was revealed, he might have had a difficult time getting Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr to agree to fight him, but things might be different now.
A fight against Mayweather should be priority one for Paul, as he can make more money fighting him than he can against another MMA-level fighter.
Nothing has been said about a fight between Jake Paul and Manny Pacquiao, but that would be an excellent option as well.
***UPDATE 1.5m PPV BUYS. He was light work. In his own words, ‘you kicked my ass.’
‘This is just the start. Everyone saying the fight was rigged is tweeting off their mom’s WiFi. Freddie Roach really perfected Ben’s defense!!
Nate Diaz gets KO’d in 3. WHO SHOULD I RETIRE NEXT?
Okay fat boy. So me vs you & J vs. T.?? https://t.co/MDhyPTVpIN
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) April 18, 2021
What should I buy with @danawhite’s $1m?
I’m thinking a Porsche 918 Spyder🧐 pic.twitter.com/XVUUQuaKFE
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) April 18, 2021
The ringside view of Jake Paul’s TKO. @ESPNRingside pic.twitter.com/YgasSH1Br4
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 18, 2021
Ben Askren looked like a fat slob
“No, I was not,” said Stephen A. Smith to ESPN when asked if he was impressed with Jake Paul’s win over Ben Askren. “Thus far, we have not seen him with a real boxer.
“I think we’ve seen enough of him to know that he takes it seriously. He’s got 14.8 million followers on Instagram, and he’s got a few million on Twitter. So he’s a social media sensation, Youtube, that kind of stuff. We get all of that stuff.
“But Nate Robinson was a basketball player. This guy Ben Askren, he was 19-2 as a UFC fighter. Where I’m not impressed is that Ben Askren should be ashamed of himself.
“He walked in there looking like a fat slob. I’m serious. He looked like somebodies’ grandparent. It was pathetic; it really, really was. To know that he is a professional fighter.
“I don’t hold that against heavyweights. If you’re a heavyweight in boxing or a heavyweight in the UFC, I get all of that.
“But there was no excuse for Ben Askren to walk into the ring looking like that. Ben Askren, did you see how he was holding up his hands?
“It was just like a fighter from the 1940s. I didn’t know if I was watching him or Jake LaMotta or Joe Louis. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?
“This is unbelievable.’ I couldn’t believe how he looked. As a [former] UFC fighter, he was always known as a grappler; he was never known as a striker. That’s not his thing,” said Smith.
The physical condition or lack thereof for Askren suggests that he felt he didn’t take the fight with Jake seriously. You can look at it in one of two ways.
Either Askren knew he had no chance and choose not to train, or he was overconfident.
I think it’s probably a situation where the 36-year-old Askren felt he couldn’t win, so he opted not to train as hard as he needed to have a shot at winning.
It’s strange for Askren not to have trained because if he won, he would have had a chance to make other big paydays on Triller. Additionally, losing and looking good would have kept Askren in demand.
Jake Paul needs to fight a boxer
“So I’m looking at Jake Paul, and I’m saying, respect the guy’s skills,” said Smith.
“He apparently wants to be a boxer. He says he’s been training for two or three years and taking it very seriously.
“Okay, that’s fine. I got nothing but respect for him, and I wish him nothing but the best. I can’t wait to take to him one day. But here’s the reality of the situation.
“You’re going into the ring with non-boxers. At some point in time, you got to go in there with someone that at least has an amateur record.
“Somebody that is trying to be a pro, because if you’re out there trying to be a boxer and your hands are licensed, you can get yourself arrested for doing the kind of stuff that he did to Ben Askren and Nate Robinson.
“More so with Nate Robinson than Ben Askren because Nate Robinson was a basketball player, and he should have never been in the ring. As Snoop Dog said, ‘You don’t play boxing.’
“In Ben Askren’s case, even though he’s no boxer, he was a UFC fighter, he was still a UFC fighter, so I get it. But clearly, boxing was not his thing, it was very, very evident, and Jake Paul going into the ring with non-boxers, that has to stop.
“Now we need to see him against guys that actually fight; box is what I’m saying since we got to go by boxing rules,” said Smith.
It’s likely that when Jake does get around to fighting a boxer, it’ll be someone like Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, one of the other massive stars.
If Paul is going to put himself in a position where he’s the underdog for once, it’ll need to be against a boxer that he can make a lot of money fighting.