Beterbiev Offers Jake Paul Title Shot: Is This A Joke?

Undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev is offering YouTuber boxer Jake Paul a free title shot at his four belts at 175 following Jake’s win over 58-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson last Friday night at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) said he wants to see what Paul (11-0, 7 KOs) “can do inside the ring.” What’s unclear is if Beterbiev is just joking around to take advantage of the attention that the 27-year-old Jake received for beating an old and washed Tyson (50-7, 44 KOs) by a wide eight-round unanimous Decision.

Tyson was over the hill when he retired 19 years ago in 2005, but he was a shell last night of the then 38-year-old who lost to Kevin McBride in the final fight of his career before last night’s circus-level match against the influencer Jake. The version of Tyson that lost to McBride would have wiped the deck with Jake. It would have been over in the first round, but he’s not that fighter now.

Beterbiev, 39, is expected to be fighting a rematch against former WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol next after beating him by a questionable 12-round majority decision last month on October 12th in Riyadh. The Saudis want the rematch, but perhaps they might be interested in financing a match between the unproven Jake Paul challenging Beterbiev for his belts.

Jake Paul vs. Artur Beterbiev Would Sell

It’s a fight that would probably sell on PPV due to Jake’s massive 26 million followers on Instagram and 20+ million YouTube subscribers. That’s a huge amount of people that the wizard marketer Jake can promote the fight with Beterbiev to. It doesn’t matter that these aren’t boxing fans and wouldn’t know that it’s a farce. They’ll still be interested in seeing the fight, and would gladly pay, believing that Jake has a chance.

On the real boxing side of it. If Beterbiev is serious, it would be an insult to the sport, making a joke of it by choosing to fight an influencer who is more of a hustler than a real boxer. Besides, it would be 100% unfair to the contenders waiting for their legitimate title shot against Beterbiev, like Bivol and Joshua Buatsi.

Jake has created a money-making formula in which he chooses really old fighters who are completely shot and have nothing left, and he capitalizes on their fame.