Jake Paul has opened up on the thought of facing Anderson Silva in his next boxing venture.
Ever since his debut in the sport of boxing, Jake Paul has been one of the biggest names in combat sports. And despite being just four fights into his professional career, the 24-year-old already has a handful of names lining up to fight him.
More recently, after his demolition of Evander Holyfield, ex-UFC light heavyweight champion, Vitor Belfort, took his chance to call out “The Problem Child” during his post-fight interview—but it seems another Brazilian mixed martial artist may be next in line for Jake.
Following his shocking decision win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and his first-round knockout of Tito Ortiz, rumors are emerging that Anderson Silva vs Jake Paul could be something we can expect in the near future.
In a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Jake Paul explored the possibility of a fight with Anderson Silva.
“I think it’d be a huge fight for sure. He’s a legend of the sport: great head movement, great striking. For me, I would love it. I have nothing but respect for Anderson. I watched him growing up and was a fan of his growing up. So it’d be cool to get in there and sort of see what would happen.” Jake said.
Despite being excited at the prospect of facing him, Jake had some concerns regarding Silva’s age.
“However, there’s the side of it like he’s 46 or 47 years old. And so for me, I would want him to go through lots of testing to make sure he’s actually good to get into the ring. I wouldn’t want some shit that just happened with Vitor and Holyfield,” Stated Jake. “He’s, what, like 22, 23 years older than me? So he’s out there looking good against these older guys: Tito Ortiz & Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. I’m sorry, but I’m built different. So it would be a lot of punishment for him, and I wouldn’t want to take out the old guy.”
With his last two opponents being a combined age of 76, Jake expressed his doubts at fighting yet another “old” fighter, though he would be interested in testing himself against the UFC legend at some point down the line.
“So part of me’s like, if I were to go fight Anderson Silva again, everyone would just be like, ‘Oh, just another old guy’ after I beat him. So it’s kind of like a lose-lose situation because if you win, it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s just an old guy. Whatever. He’s retired. He’s washed up.’ So I don’t know. But definitely could be interesting if he goes and undergoes the testing and we could figure something out. I think our teams are talking a bit, but we’ll see.”
Could we see Jake Paul facing off against Anderson Silva inside a boxing ring sometime in the future?
