Social media star Jake Paul was back in the news this week after signing a Showtime Sports deal to fight former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley this August on pay-per-view (PPV), the latest in a string of celebrity boxing matches.
Perhaps it’s time we start taking Paul seriously.
Another UFC welterweight, Mike Perry, knows firsthand how tough the blonde bomber can be inside the ring and actually believes Paul was a harder spar than UFC middleweight contender Darren Till, no stranger to “Platinum” leather.
“Jake Paul was a better spar than Till,” Perry recently told reporters (via The Mac Life). “That was an awkward situation with the gloves and shit. Yeah, definitely though.”
Perry also wants to hunt down Till’s mom and kick her in the face, so take his comments with a grain of salt.
“Making you think he’s gonna engage then doesn’t,” Perry said about Paul’s strengths as a striker. “He’s got long reach, he’s got different tricks, he taught me something. First round he started doing something and I was like ‘okay’ … it wasn’t doing damage, but it was like keeping him at bay.”
Perry, 29, insists he “took over” by the fourth frame.
The 24 year-old Paul is now 3-0 as a professional boxer after scoring three straight first-round knockouts over Ali Eson Gib, Nate Robinson, and Ben Askren, a longtime friend and training partner of Woodley.
Till, 28, has yet to respond.