“You should be calling out Anderson, not Michael Bisping. That’s the fight. That’s the fight.”
Former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier thinks YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul should call out Anderson Silva instead of picking on a “43-year-old guy with one eye and no knees”.
If Paul wants to be taken seriously as a boxer then he needs to stop calling out Michael Bisping and fight an actual boxer.
Enter Silva.
‘The Spider’ actually has some professional boxing experience under his belt and has proven, even at 47-years-old, that he is still very much a force to be reckoned with (just ask former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chaevz Jr.).
“You want an older guy to fight?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Fighting). “Hey, there’s a former UFC champion that is doing exactly what you’re doing. His name’s Anderson Silva. That’s who you should be fighting, Jake. That’s who you should be calling out, because guess what, he still fits the mold. Former UFC champ. Amateur boxer because he’s only fought, I don’t know, five boxing fights just like you. He’s your size and he’s up there in age so it still fits the mold.
“You should be calling out Anderson, not Michael Bisping. That’s the fight. That’s the fight. Not only does that fight fit the mold of what you’re doing, that fight actually gives us some idea of what this thing is that you’re trying to do or portray.”
“If you really want to show the world, if you really want to prove that this is a second career for Jake Paul,” he added. “Tthat you want to be considered legitimate, you got the Showtime deal, you’re a fighter — fight Anderson Silva. That’s fun because Anderson Silva is still an amateur boxer, but he’s still training, he’s still fit, he’s dealt with injuries obviously, when you’re a UFC champion for as long as he’s been and on top of the game, you’ve got injuries. He’s older — Anderson’s older than all of us, but Anderson is still fighting and Anderson Silva presents a chance for you to truly prove yourself. So let go of the Bisping thing.”
Cormier acknowledges that Bisping would still give Paul one hell of a fight despite his injuries and inactivity but would much prefer to see Paul take on Silva.
“I get it. If you’re gonna fight Mike, I’m tuning in,” Cormier said. “Hell, I might even go to watch my friend cash in and watch you get pushed [to a place] that you have not been pushed to yet. Maybe in sparring, but in a fight, nobody’s pushed you like Bisping will push Jake Paul. But if Jake Paul wants to be considered real and Jake Paul wants to be an actual fighter, you’ve gotta fight somebody that is more in the game. And that person to me is Anderson Silva.”
Paul last fought in December 2021 when he KO’d former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to extend his unbeaten record to 5-0.