It’s rare to see Jake Paul give credit to MMA fighters, but he had nothing but praise for Anderson Silva.
The former UFC middleweight champion had a successful return to boxing this past Saturday when he outpointed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to win a split decision on the main card of Tribute to the Kings in Guadalajara, Mexico
Paul lauded Silva for his performance and said “The Spider” proved MMA fighters can indeed box and make for legitimate competition in the ring.
“Anderson’s 46 years old, and I thought he did an incredible job,” Paul told TMZ. “He was sticking and moving, bouncing around the ring, having fun, was throwing combos. He’s long and lanky and to come in there and beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who’s what, 50? Wins in the ring, is a world champion … this just goes to show that MMA strikers are also great boxers, and I think a lot of people forget that. That is the first skill that MMA fighters learn if they’re going to learn how to fight, is boxing. So I thought he looked amazing.”
Paul is gearing up for what could be his toughest test to date when he meets former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley on Aug. 28 on Showtime pay-per-view. While he respects Silva and wanted him to compete on the same card, he’s not ruling out a potential fight against him in the future – and neither is Silva.
“Anything is possible,” Paul said. “I didn’t initially think of that, but my saying is ‘Anyone, any time, any place.’ But I think it’ll be more interesting to see Anderson Silva fight Roy Jones Jr. on my undercard, which is what I originally tweeted out there because he beat one legendary boxer, let’s see if he can beat another legendary boxer. Maybe there’s a fight for us down the road. I think there’s talks about him maybe fighting against my brother (Logan Paul). But Anderson’s a nice guy, and I respect him as a legend.”
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