Anderson Silva could be headed for a potential boxing match with social media star Jake Paul and his coach believes it would be a wash.
Coming off an impressive performance against Bruno Machado in an exhibition boxing match earlier this month Silva has lined himself up for a massive fight his next time out. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight titleholder has looked tremendous since crossing over into boxing just one year ago. Even at 47 years of age “Spider” has shown he still possesses the speed, technique, power, and drive to perform at a high level.
With his success inside of the boxing ring Silva has been linked to a potential clash with Paul, who has become one of the most talked about athletes in combat sports today. Silva has already expressed his interested in competing against Paul as it’s a massive fight for both fighters at this stage of their careers.
Silva’s longtime boxing coach, Luiz Carlos Dorea, believes that the former UFC champion would have his way with the social media star if they ever did meet inside of the ring. Paul hasn’t faced someone with the track record of Silva and could run into some issues if the two squared off.
“You have to laugh, right? Have to laugh,” Dorea told MMA Fighting. “Jake Paul is doing his part, which is to promote. It’s obvious there’s no way he can face Mayweather, one of the best boxers of all time, and Anderson, another legend. He never fought a striker.”
“He has to think of an exhibition,” Dorea added. “If he’s considering an [official] fight, I think he will pay dearly. In promoting, it’s all valid. He’s doing his part, using his tongue, but you can’t use your tongue inside the ring. You have to use your fists, and it’s a whole other story. Anderson is far better.”
As of now Silva has verbally agreed to return to Abu Dhabi in October for another boxing match, but it’s unknown at this time if that will be an exhibition or an official fight. Either way, “Spider” seems incredibly focused as he spreads his wings beyond MMA and carves out a career inside of the boxing ring.
“Anderson has always trained boxing when he was fighting MMA,” Dorea said of his evolution. “He was always a striker with good boxing and Muay Thai. Now, almost two years later and the three [boxing matches] we’ve done, and training boxing specifically for this, Anderson is evolving a lot. He’s more confident in his movement and defense. He had great boxing for MMA, and is putting on a show now. His level is so high.”
Paul, who is 22 years younger than Silva, is currently expected to make his return to boxing this coming August. If he can win again and push his undefeated record to 6-0 then a matchup with Silva could manifest by year’s end.