Jake Paul and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr met up for a press convention at present to advertise their June 28 DAZN pay-per-view primary occasion, which can see the long-faded Chavez, 39, face the king of the gimmick fighters.
Paul, 28, insisted that this can be a fan-demanded struggle, and appeared incapable of constructing up his thoughts about whether or not Chavez is definitely any good or not.
“This struggle has been brewing for fairly a while now. The followers have wished to see this, and I wish to proceed to raise and lift the extent of my opponents,” he mentioned. “This can be a former world champion, and he has a tremendous resume following in his dad’s footsteps. This man is a good fighter, and I wish to take a look at myself in opposition to the perfect on the planet.”
“I’m going to embarrass him and make him stop like he all the time does,” he went on to say. “I don’t need any excuses. After I beat this man, all of the boxing media, such as you all the time do, are going to discredit it. I’m going to show and embarrass him. He’s the embarrassment of Mexico. Mexico doesn’t even declare him, and he’s going to get uncovered.
“They are saying he’s coaching arduous. They are saying that is essentially the most centered he’s ever been. Good. As he needs to be. Folks don’t notice how good I really am, and when he feels these first few punches, he’s going to wish to stop and return to his stool.”
Let’s make this clear up entrance: Jake Paul deserves the identical respect for climbing into a hoop that anybody else does, as a result of it’s all the time harmful, and I do assume Jake takes this critically, trains arduous, and has trustworthy respect for boxing. He’s pretty much as good as you might count on him to be.
However he’s not a severe skilled prospect or rising precise contender, and this struggle with Chavez received’t change that.
One of many constant ways Paul (11-1, 7 KO) makes use of in selling himself is attacking media or followers who don’t take him critically, which is a approach to side-step the difficulty that he’s by no means finished something in a boxing ring that calls for being taken critically aside from dropping to Tommy Fury, who additionally isn’t a severe prospect regardless of his final title.
Except for Fury, the one “actual boxers” that Paul has confronted had been Andre August and Ryan Bourland, club-level professionals who had every been largely inactive for a number of years and confronted Paul combating properly over their pure weights.
What has Jake Paul achieved in a boxing ring in any other case? He’s crushed an “influencer,” a basketball participant, 5 washed up MMA fighters, and the 58-year-old, rusted out shell of Mike Tyson.
However earlier than you start to assume that is merely a “hit piece” on Jake Paul’s “boxing profession,” let’s get into his June opponent.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has by no means been an important fighter and he’s positive not about to develop into one. There have been a number of wins in his profession that had been debatable at finest, with Junior coming by on the playing cards in a manner that’s surprisingly frequent in boxing, the place the man value more cash one way or the other all the time appears to nick it.
Lengthy earlier than Chavez bought round to being finely and really uncovered at world degree by Sergio Martinez in 2013, Chavez might have had losses on his file to Carlos Molina (twice), Matt Vanda, Luciano Cuello, Sebastian Zbik, and Marco Antonio Rubio.
After Martinez routed him — albeit with Chavez exhibiting his aptitude for the dramatic by dropping Sergio within the last spherical — he had an in depth name with Brian Vera earlier than being thrashed by Andrzej Fonfara, and he by no means bought again on monitor.
The Fonfara struggle occurred 10 years in the past final month.
What’s he finished since? Some wins over so-so guys, one of many worst PPV primary occasion performances of all time in opposition to Canelo Alvarez in 2017, a stop job that began a small riot in opposition to Daniel Jacobs in 2019, and losses to Mario Cazares and Anderson Silva — the identical Anderson Silva who went on to lose to Paul at age 47.
The one struggle Chavez has had since 2021 got here final July in a win over MMA fighter Uriah Corridor, which was on a Jake Paul undercard and clearly meant to plant a seed.
Chavez was by no means pretty much as good as his promotional hype, however he hasn’t finished something of really optimistic observe in a boxing ring since roaring again to cease Andy Lee at El Paso’s Solar Bowl in 2012, which was the perfect efficiency of his profession and one value real respect.
Chavez is hard. He’s all the time been robust. However he’s additionally all the time been unreliable, seen as extremely lazy and nearly detached about precise struggle preparation and coaching, and to anybody who understands the finer factors of boxing achievements within the trendy age — e.g., profitable a world title doesn’t essentially imply what it ought to — a far cry wanting who we had been instructed he was by the individuals being profitable from his fights.
He’s additionally now previous, inactive, combating 40 lbs over his finest weight, and has already confirmed far much less able to beating the types of fellows that Paul routinely beats handily.
Jake Paul will let you know on one hand that Chavez is a humiliation and will probably be uncovered, and on the opposite that he’s an important fighter and that beating him will imply one thing.
It received’t, actually. And if Chavez beats him, then Paul ought to actually think about a brand new income stream to exchange this one, as a result of the model of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr he’s going to struggle in six weeks isn’t even in the identical ballpark because the one which was overrated at his peak.
Jake Paul can’t show something new with this struggle. It’s the identical kind of opponent he’s tried to promote you repeatedly, solely this time they’ll slap a sticker on the field that claims “former boxing world champion.”
