Jake Paul’s manager, Nakisa Bidarian, says they’re not interested in accepting the fight against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois. Bidarian says Jake’s immediate goal is to return to cruiserweight to become a world champion in that weight class.
It’s not a huge shock that Jake has rejected Dubois’ offer to fight him for his IBF title because it wouldn’t be competitive. He’s not ready for a fighter like Dubois.
“Not Now” – Why Paul is Avoiding Dubois
Bidarian doesn’t say who Jake will fight to become a cruiserweight champion because he would be overmatched against any of the existing champs. However, if the WBC puts one of their lesser titles up for grabs, like the Diamond, Silver, or Interim, Paul can potentially win if he’s matched against the right kind of opponent. KSI or Salt Papi would be ideal. The downside is that Jake wouldn’t be taken seriously by hardcore boxing fans, but his followers wouldn’t mind.
Cruiserweight World Champions
– Gilberto Ramirez: WBA & WBO
– Jai Opetaia: IBF
– Noel Mikaelyan: WBC
Jake wants to capture a cruiserweight world title before he moves up to heavyweight to challenge for a belt against someone like Dubois. Jake’s best chance of winning a world title at cruiserweight would be against WBC champion Noel Mikaelyan. He’s widely seen as the weakest link among the three champions in the division.
Paul, 27, defeated 58-year-old retired former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson last Friday in a fight that many fans felt was scripted like a theatrical production. Fans point out that Tyson pulled his punches to avoid hurting the young fight-hustler Paul (11-1, 7 KOs), who has yet to fight a world-class boxer during his four-year career.
IBF champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) wanted to get in on the act to offer Jake a free title shot without him needing to actually earn the fight, because it was pretty obvious that the way his career has been moved, he had no intention of following the normal rules of boxing.
Jake likely would never agree to fight a top 15 contender at heavyweight or compete in a world title eliminator against someone like Martin Bakole, Agit Kabayel, or Zhilei Zhang. With Jake’s popularity, he doesn’t need to work his way to a title shot. It’ll be given to him.
“Jake’s feedback to me was, ‘I want to do that fight [with Dubois but] not now, but I want to do that fight,’” said Nakisa Bidarian to Sky Sports about Jake Paul not being interested in facing IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois now.
“To be a world champion at cruiserweight, he wants to do that. The other [fighting Dubois] is to test the limits of expectations. Test the limits of what’s possible,” said Bidarian. “It isn’t about the money. He’s made lots of money from the time he was 18 years old. It’s really about doing things that make you say: ‘Wow, that really happened.’ That’s what excites us.”
Jake defeated the hapless-looking Mike Tyson by an eight-round unanimous decision in front of a large crowd of 73,000+ fans at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The scores were 79-73, 80-72 and 79-73.
The sad part is that the Texas Commission sanctioned the Paul vs. Tyson fight as an official professional fight that counted in the record books despite the match having two minutes and both fighters wearing 14-oz gloves.
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