Jake Paul has announced that he will return to the ring on August 13, the announcement coming fresh off of his co-promoter role for Saturday night’s historic Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano fight.
Paul (4-0, 3 KO) last fought in December, taking part in five-plus rounds of a deadly dull rematch with faded former UFC champion Tyron Woodley before scoring a thunderous right hand knockout in the sixth. Paul had previously beaten Woodley by split decision over eight rounds in Aug. 2021.
The 25-year-old “Problem Child” has been repeatedly chastised for having still not fought someone considered a “real boxer,” with his pro debut coming against a YouTube dude who had no business in a ring, then a retired NBA player who had no business in a ring, then Ben Askren who wasn’t even an acceptable striker by MMA standards, and then the two fights with Woodley, who can punch but was well past his prime.
Paul’s general argument has been that he’s only x amount of fights into his career, pointing out some of the early opponents that many legends had at the start of their runs, the difference being that Paul is asking people to spend about $50 for a pay-per-view to see him fight, which is fine because he’s famous and can do that, but it comes with the push-back of people demanding far more quickly that you start facing anyone they consider a threat.
We know that Tommy Fury, who was Paul’s originally scheduled December opponent, still wants the fight. He just fought on Apr. 23, so he’d be ready by August for sure. Paul has also mentioned seeing how Anderson Silva does in a May 14 fight in Dubai, and just this past week Eddie Hearn offered to give him a fight against someone from the Matchroom stable, suggesting Olympian Cheavon Clarke when Paul said he’d want someone with under 10 fights.
We’ll see what Jake does, because there is no shortage of faded MMA fighters who would love to get a Jake Paul payday. Tommy Fury still seems like the best bet; if anything, the cancellation in December gave them more to work with as far as promotion, and Jake was willing to do it then, so why not now?
