“He’s doing his part, using his tongue, but you can’t use your tongue inside the ring.”
Anderson Silva’s longtime boxing coach Luiz Carlos Dorea couldn’t help but laugh at Jake Paul’s recent comments about wanting to box Anderson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the same night.
Dorea, who coached Silva for his recent exhibition with Bruno Machado, understands Paul is doing his job to promote the fight[s] but advised the 5-0 boxer against fighting Silva unless in an exhibition.
Dorea says Paul would ‘pay dearly’ in an actual boxing match with Silva and that the YouTube star would be completely out of his element against a striker of ‘The Spider’s’ caliber.
“You have to laugh, right? Have to laugh. 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,” Dorea told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz in a recent interview.
“He has to think of an exhibition. 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.”
Dorea revealed Silva has been training boxing since he first started MMA which is why the former UFC middleweight champion is now having so much success in the boxing ring at 47-years-old.
“Anderson has always trained boxing when he was fighting MMA,” Dorea said. “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.”
Silva is 3-1 in boxing overall and 2-0 since he left the UFC in 2020. The Brazilian holds standout victories over former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz. Although his last bout was an exhibition, the UFC legend still managed to put on a show by almost knocking his opponent through the ropes in the fifth round. Silva will return to the boxing ring in October against a TBD opponent.