Going into last night's fight, I was very much looking forward to Jake Paul finally getting a whoopin' the likes of which we all wanted to see heading his direction for all this time.
Now that it has actually happened though, I kind of feel bad for the guy in a way because he got completely embarrassed last night and I think everyone saw this coming.
As is usually the case the fights leading up to the main even were mostly boring but at least they kind of keep things moving and don't subject us to a bunch of commercials for Burger King and Toyota or whatever between the fights. There was some product placement, but it was not nearly as bad as UFC.
The event was handled pretty well in fact, and it was entertaining. Seeing Jake come to the ring with Hulk Hogan's getup on was strange, but we were commenting about how we were just happy that he wasn't inside of a mech suit or on the back of a tank again. This was a more "human" entrance.
Everyone knew that A.J. has the power to end this boy's life in the ring and it would only take one or two hits to make it happen. I think Jake knew this as well and he proceeded to do a really annoying and strange strategy of just "run away" and then when Joshua would finally close the distance Jake would clinch and even do something that looked like a takedown attempt. As the announcer said at one point, "Jake, you've got the wrong sport!"
The crowd was starting to get restless as Jake managed to make it though 4 rounds doing this crap. Someone posted on Twitter that Jake Paul had 13 takedown attempts and 16 landed punches by the end of it. I was standing there in awe that the ref was tolerating this. I really believe that if it had been anyone other than Jake Paul doing this that points would have been deducted after the 2nd attempt and perhaps a warning for disqualification would happen. The ref was having some chats with Jake, but he didn't punish him. Maybe because the ref knew that taking points away from a guy that was just delaying his own knockout with every move he made was a waste of time.
When Jake finally started to gas out from running around the ring and leaning in Joshua for 13 minutes or so, it only took a couple of exchanges and a single solid hit to make it through to show the world how far out of an actual championship picture Jake Paul actually is. Those of us that like boxing always knew that he never deserved this chance but since he was bankrolling it, he gets to do whatever he wants.
I'm just really happy that the fight didn't appear to be rigged on the Joshua end of things because that would have been a disaster for the sport and especially for Joshua. I'm sure neither man is going to complain though because while I cannot be sure about this, I have hear rumblings that both men will receive more than 60 million dollars for this bout. I've heard figures as high as 90.
When Jake hit the ground you could see him mouth out "oh wow!" in the slo mo. Wow indeed... this is what happens when you take on a proper high caliber fighter. Not an MMA fighter, not some cousin of a somebody, not some questionable cartel-tied washed up loser, not some old man who used to be something and needs money very badly.
Some in the media were giving Jake props and praising him for surviving for that long but for those of us that actually watched the fight Jake does not deserve praise for this. Jake didn't box. Jake did drills on avoiding one's opponent and barely ever threw any punches. When he would get cornered he would cover up and clinch and this is where the takedown attempts happened. It was all very bizarre.
The good news is that maybe this can put an end, at least temporarily to the hype train that is MVP and Jake Paul in the boxing ring. He got exposed for everyone to see and while Jake would never admit to it, he looked very scared in there and with good reason. Current world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who has fought and defeated Anthony Joshua twice was on record saying "If Anthony Joshua wants to, he can kill this guy... I will pray for Jake Paul."
Jake did the post fight in-ring presser, claiming that the one big hit (which was all it took) that got through, broke his jaw and go and find it and watch it
This is not the best clip and it will likely get taken down in a little while anyway, but you can find the clip if you really want it.
Joshua was doing some talking in the ring afterwards and praised Jake but I feel like that is obligatory. I mean say what you will about Jake Paul, but the money that was in this fight would NOT HAVE BEEN in this fight if it wasn't for Jake Paul. Anthony Joshua is not in the championship picture at the moment and wasn't even training for over a year. Now he seems to have his sights set on Saudi Arabia and a fight with Tyson Fury.
I dunno if I am interested in that. What I am interested in is seeing Jake Paul stop with the fight fantasy for a while, and maybe this beatdown will have been embarrassing enough for him to take a back seat for a while and maybe just go and watch some boxing, rather than trying to be in the spotlight during them.