Paulie Malignaggi trashed Jake Paul for the timid way he fought last Friday night against 58-year-old Mike Tyson in Arlington, Texas.
The way Paul, 27, was non-committal to his punches and retreated “40 feet” back after throwing a shot disgusted Malignaggi as well as the fans who subscribed to Netflix to watch the Jake-Tyson fight.
Fans wanted to see an entertaining fight, but instead, it was a low-level match, lacking any drama whatsoever. Jake lacked the courage to put himself at risk by standing in the pocket against Tyson, so he stunk up the joint with a Shakur-esque fighting approach.
Jake won the fight, but the victory was hollow due to the boring match-up. Fans felt ripped off, and they’re blaming Jake for that because he was too chicken to stand his ground against the old legend.
Malignaggi believes Jake “regressed” as a fighter from the way he’d fought in the past, but I don’t agree. Jake was never good, to begin with, and this was just more of the same medical stuff from him that we’ve been seeing.
“The reason Jake won is because Mike was logjammed to the ground. He couldn’t move to chase him down,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV, talking about Jake Paul’s win over Mike Tyson.
It would have been interesting if Jake had stood directly in front of Tyson and risked being knocked out. Jake may not realize it, but the attention his fight with Tyson would have gone through the roof if he had knocked him out.
Had Tyson won, it would have brought more favorable interest in Jake’s career, and he might have been able to set up a lucrative rematch. Instead, Jake fought a boring safety-first fight, beating Tyson by an eight-round unanimous decision, and is being vilified by fans as a no-talent cherry-picker,
“He [Jake] was non-commital to his punches. Jake was throwing punches and jumping 40 feet back because he was so scared of what was coming back,” said Malignaggi.” That’s not carrying somebody. Jake isn’t good enough to carry anybody, but he got worse. That’s what’s disappointing to me.”
Paul didn’t want to get knocked out, so he used the Shakur Stevenson step-back fighting approach and was retreating at the first hints of danger. That was the worst style to use against the 58-year-old Tyson because it made Jake look like a coward.
“Jake is getting fat [rich] off the game, whereas Turki Alalshikh is losing money off the game, but he’s trying to give us fights we want to see,” said Tim Bradley. “Jake was poo-pooing in his pains the whole time he was in the ring. I couldn’t believe how scared he was of a 58-year-old. He was lucky the 58-year-old couldn’t move. That’s the only reason he didn’t have more problems.”
Paul is definitely not trying to put on great fights when it involves him. He picks opposition where the deck is stacked in his favor, with them being old or not coming from a boxing background. That’s not going to change because if it did, he’d lose.
“Mike was way too old, and the fight got sanctioned anyway. We all know Jake is a bum. He doesn’t know how to fight.”
“Jake the fighter sucks, and he’s getting worse. I was very surprised how he handled the fight,” said Malignaggi.
The influencer Jake is an excellent businessman who does an outstanding job promoting his undercards. Malignaggi is right. Paul is not a world-class fighter, and he’s not going to be. He’ll be turning 28 soon, and he’s not a top-15-level cruiserweight.
The fact that Jake lost to Tommy Fury in 2023 tells you all you need to know about his potential and future. Tommy is a British-level fighter.
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