Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, is widely-considered to be one of the greatest mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters of all time, due largely in part to his historic reign as 185-pound champion, complete with a record-setting win streak that has yet to be broken.
Jake Paul dropped “The Spider” en route to a unanimous decision victory back in late 2022.
Not bad for a “Disney kid” who competes in “joke fights.”
Not long after that, “El Gallo” floored — then decisioned — former UFC welterweight Nate Diaz, who once set a CompuStrike record for beating the ever-loving shit out of Donald Cerrone at UFC 141. Like Silva before him, MMA fans were hoping Diaz would bring an end to Paul’s boxing career, which up until that point, was built on a foundation of shopworn UFC fighters like Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley.
Both were sent back to the clearance rack after violent knockout losses.
That’s why it’s getting a little cringey to hear marquee UFC fighters beg for boxing matches. If former cage-fighting megastars like Silva and Diaz — renowned for their hands — can’t beat a twenty-something social media star, who jumped off the couch and took a celebrity boxing match to keep pace with his brother’s combat sports stunts, then what chance does any MMA fighter have in the “sweet science” against a battle-tested pugilist?
I thought Francis Ngannou had the answer … until he didn’t.
There have been exceptions, like Anthony Pettis beating Roy Jones Jr. and Vitor Belfort stopping Evander Holyfield. It’s just hard to take those wins seriously when you consider Jones Jr. is 55 and Holyfield is 61. With that in mind, defenders of the MMA faith may have finally found their savior in the form of ex-UFC welterweight Mike Perry, who continues to ply his trade as a bareknuckle boxer for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC).
Call him the uncrowned (and perhaps accidental) “King” of violence.
Perry was called up to battle Paul this Sat. night (July 20) on DAZN pay-per-view (PPV) in what “El Gallo” is hoping to be a quick warmup for his Mike Tyson fight this November on Netflix. Cart before the horse? Consider that Conor McGregor — dreaming of a pugilistic payday opposite Manny Pacquiao — had that same philosophy ahead of his Dustin Poirier fight at UFC 257, only to overlook “The Diamond” and get knocked the f—k out.
McGregor’s attempt to right the ship at UFC 264 ended in disaster.
Let’s not gloss over the fact that Perry was a middling UFC fighter who had a tremendous amount of bark (but very little bite) when it came time to perform. It’s been seven years since his last knockout inside the cage and following that first-round finish, “Platinum” was a dreadful 3-7, dropping four of his last five before hitting the open market.
BKFC, like most other combat sports promotions, helped build its brand with fighters who were no longer successful (or no longer wanted) inside the Octagon. With the exception of Michael Page, all of Perry’s BKFC wins featured UFC leftovers coming off losses, like Luke Rockhold and Eddie Alvarez, among others. Perry is still relatively young at 32 and let’s face it, some of his much-older opponents just wanted a quick paycheck.
Jake Paul is 27 years old and takes his boxing career seriously, even if you don’t.
That might be one of many reasons why the combat sports community is so disgusted by Paul. He’s only here because of his social media fame, and successful “influencers” are widely-regarded as opportunists who didn’t pay their dues. I’m sure it’s hard for aging MMA fighters who bodysurfed waves of their own blood just for a chance to compete under the UFC banner — where pay starts as low as $10k per fight — to watch some cocky YouTube smartass waltz in and score beaucoup bucks.
Nothing, per se, but it’s time to accept the fighting landscape has changed and it may be more uneven now than it ever was, thanks to new (and sometimes obnoxious) paths to stardom. The MMA industry remains insecure as a whole, which is understandable when you consider how long it took for “cock fighters” to be seen as legitimate athletes — not muscled-up “skinheads and homosexuals.”
It wasn’t that long ago when UFC was banned in New York.
That’s why the presence of Paul and his many antics can seem threatening to MMA. Fighting is a serious endeavor and carries a very real danger of death and serious injury. There’s also the respect factor, which can sometimes border on parody, but it’s no secret that most UFC fighters want to be both feared and admired for their violent attributes.
That’s a pretty tall order when Jake Paul is the face of combat sports.
Maybe Perry will restore order and send “El Gallo” back to the YouTube circuit, where he can reignite his feud with longtime rival KSI. The more likely scenario is that Perry, who was knocked out in his one-and-only pro boxing bout, will realize his usual nuke first, collect paychecks later approach doesn’t translate well to boxing, where subtly and nuance are still potent weapons in high-stakes prize fights.
If that’s the case, expect reinvigorated haters to exit stage left and board the Tyson hype train ahead of Paul’s return in November, which was probably the plan all along.
To stream Paul vs. Perry “Fear No Man” on DAZN PPV click here.