Jake Paul says he’s finally going to fight the kind of opponent his critics want to see him face. Next year.
On Saturday, Paul added another win to his boxing résumé, taking a unanimous decision over former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in their cruiserweight fight in Anaheim, Calif. It was another underwhelming performance from Paul, who was visibly larger than the 39-year-old Chavez, and only continued the criticism Paul has faced for hand-picking undersized and past-their-prime opponents. But for Paul, this win was a pivotal moment in his career: a turning point for him towards a more serious boxing run.
“I don’t even think I was a fighter then,” Paul said in his post-fight press conference when asked about his loss to Tommy Fury in comparison to his performance on Saturday. “That was two years, two-and-a-half years into the sport, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have the right team around me, the proper team around me, the proper conditioning. My lifestyle outside of the ring was still like a YouTube, celebrity, actor, whatever I was at the time. I wasn’t fully focused on boxing.
