By: Sean Crose
Give Jake Paul this: He’s a determined man. Around 6 months after getting his jaw destroyed by none other than Anthony Joshua the media influencer turned boxer has reportedly decided he wants to get it back in the ring again. Why the man wants to fight anymore is up for debate. Paul is nothing if not a talented rising promoter. He’s done wonders for women’s boxing, and has just had a success… albeit a financial one… by having Ronda Rousey face Gina Carano on Netflix. Again, this is a man with options. The mind wants what the mind wants, however, and so Paul appears willing and able to return to the professional fight game.
All this wouldn’t be so alarming if Paul’s business partner hadn’t recently indicated that Paul might have interest in fighting MMA great Francis Ngannou or even former world titlist Tyson Fury. While both Paul and Ngannou have been laid out by Joshua seeing the two of them throw down might not be a bad idea if they can find a way to make it happen.Paul would be giving up the weight advantage and Ngannou would be giving up the edge in ring experience . Again, it’s a fight that’s feasible. Perhaps not wildly appealing, but at least feasible.
Fury could be another story. He’s tall like Joshua and also very skilled. Don’t be fooled by the fact that Ngannou took him the distance and almost bested him, Fury will be well prepared if the guy learned anything from that experience. The main thing that should be on everyone’s mind, however, is the fact that Paul took a real beating at the glove fists of Joshua. A person can’t take too many of those, not the kind that Joshua inflicted on him. Shots from Fury and Ngannou aren’t going to undo any damage Paul received in the Joshua fight, either.
Of course declarations of Paul possibly getting back in the ring could just be hype at this point. He’s got a way to go until that jaw of his heels. You don’t just rush into the ring immediately after something like that. For Paul the important thing is to stay in the public eye and he’s doing so by allowing the word to get out that he might just fight in the ring professionally again…. possibly against two big hitting fighters no less. If Paul is seriously thinking about getting into the prize ring against top caliber opposition, however he should he thinking over long and hard before he signs any contracts.
All of this of course leads to the matter of novelty fights, which now absolutely have to be exhausting the public (Or is that not true?). Last week saw no better a fighter than Oleksandr Usyk, King of the heavyweight division himself almost losing to a kickboxer with exactly one boxing match on his record. If Usyk can almost drop a novelty fight, anybody can. Established fighters better push the novelty business aside, or take their opponents very, very seriously. No matter how experienced or an experienced they may be, because the way things are going a major mainstream fighter is going to lose to the underdog in one of these circus affairs.
Yet no one can deny the fact that Paul has done very well for himself in the novelty fight business. It’s made him more wealthy than he probably ever could have dreamed of. And believe it or not he’s not a half bad fighter. He’s just not championship material. Boxing can be like a siren song, however, leading otherwise intelligent men and women towards the rocks of a seemingly easy high profile payday. Paul’s already learned the price. You can pay for such things once. One wonders why he’d actually want to do it again.
