Prospect, Poser, Punk?

This Saturday (July 20, 2024), “El Gallo” Jake Paul continues his combat sports career opposite bare knuckle bruiser, Mike Perry, in an eight-round gloved boxing match from inside Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

Ten fights deep into his professional career, Paul has proven himself pretty decent at this whole boxing thing. A split decision defeat to Tommy Fury cost him some luster, but he’s managed to rebound well by taking out the veteran Nate Diaz and viciously stopping a couple club fighters. He rebuilt momentum, lining up a marquee — if bizarre — match up versus Mike Tyson.

Tyson’s health issues cost Paul that opportunity (for now), but he’ll instead face a more legitimate challenge than a 58-year-old. Perry is at the top of his game, carving game opponents up inside the bare knuckle arena, and there is little doubt that he’ll take the fight to “The Problem Child.”

Until then, let’s take a closer look at Paul’s boxing skill:

Boxing

Paul deserves some credit for putting in the work with legitimate coaches and sparring partners to build some real boxing skill, which is complimented by natural athleticism and typically a size advantage.

Historically, Paul ensures he’s the bigger man with the larger reach. He capitalizes on that range advantage with an active and pretty quick jab. In general, he does a nice job of pumping his lead shoulder to hide that strike. He doubles and triples the jab up well, often targeting the body. Like many young boxers, Paul does occasionally stick around too long after the jab, which is how Tyron Woodley was able to line up his cross counter on a few occasions.

On the whole, Paul does well to work the body. He touches the torso often with the jab, and he commonly goes low with his cross too. Very often, Paul flicks a jab high to distract his opponent then takes the 2 downstairs. Sometimes the left hook follows, but Paul is also pretty willing to hook directly off the jab.

Most of Paul’s game revolves around setting up his right hand, typically as a straight or overhand. At distance, Paul will commonly follow up his jab, double jab, of jab high-jab low with a cross down the middle. He throws the shot well and always has, crisp with natural power and snap.

Paul likes the right hand but loves his overhand. It’s his heaviest punch, and he’s very willing to commit his weight fully to the shot. He’ll occasionally pair his overhand with an uppercut, a nice way to circumnavigate the guard.

It’s a credit to Paul’s athleticism and natural power that he’s always been able to throw with power from his back foot. That’s typically tough to learn, but Paul was able to flatten Nate Robinson in his second pro fight with a pair of well-timed counter right hands as Robinson rushed forward. I’m not implying Robinson knew how to box at all, but it still takes skill and coordination to time a wild rush forward like that.

He managed to crack Ben Askren in similar fashion, and he also landed some heavy counter shots on Woodley, prompting further hesitancy.

That’s really the bulk of Paul’s game. He stays reasonably light on his feet (until tired at least), has an active and effective jab, and can drop a bomb of a right hand if given the opportunity. He does decent work to the mid-section and rarely gets too out of position.

Against Silva, the same game plan was elevated. Paul still kept an active jab, good feints, and touched the body commonly. However, there were a pair of notable traits that really impressed me.

First and foremost, Paul kept his composure defensively. Silva excels at freaking fighters out! It’s what he does, and as a pretty rookie boxer with less than two dozen rounds in the ring, it would make a lot of sense if Silva could draw a bad reaction from Paul. When Silva got aggressive and started his wild feint sequences, Paul kept his hands tight, moved his head, and fired smart jabs back when it made sense. If he was on the ropes, he made it a priority to circle off.

Similarly smart defensive choices prevented any kind of late Nate Diaz rally as well.

As the Silva fight wore on, Paul grew more confident without making mistakes. His knockdown of Silva was really beautiful stuff. “The Spider” was down on the cards and forced to make something happen, so Paul set him up. As Silva advanced, Paul flashed a jab to raise the guard, used a pair of body shots to score a new angle, then continued his combination upstairs.

Silva represented a big step up in Paul’s game compared to the Woodley fights. Conversely, Paul looked less prepared for Tommy Fury. Against a similarly fast man who could match his reach, Paul really struggled to build combinations. It didn’t help that he tired badly as well, which stole away much of his quickness.

In short, Paul found himself rendered defensive and behind on the volume game. Still, there was at least one positive takeaway for Paul, who showed an improved counter left hand. Previously, he’s used the overhand to counter the jab several times, and he showed that strike against Fury often (too often). However, it did help set Paul up to slip inside the jab then load up with either the left hook or jab.

His knockdown occurred from a counter jab, but his best land of the fight may have been an inside slip-left hook counter that turned Fury’s head around in the fifth.

Paul bounced back against Diaz well. Most notably, his conditioning seemed much improved. In a longer fight against a historically high-volume pressure fighter, Paul was able to consistently throw in combination, move his feet, and keep his guard high. That left hook counter also produced the sole knockdown of the fight, adding another powerful wrinkle to Paul’s offense.

Would Paul’s cardio have held up as well against a larger or younger volume striker? Who knows, but it got the job done against Diaz.

Conclusion

Paul has pretty consistently shown improvement since the start of his venture into boxing. We should expect a better Paul than in the Diaz bout, but Perry is still a threat as a dynamic and hungry slugger in his prime.

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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.

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Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry card right here, starting with YouTube “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET (and right here). The remaining PPV main card will air on DAZN at 9 p.m. ET.

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