Roy Jones Jr. believes fighters should pay attention to Jake Paul and not criticize him.
Yesterday, the official press conference took place, which kicked off the promotion for Jake Paul (5-0) vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. (12-1) at the Madison Square Garden on Aug. 6. For those that have criticized Paul in the past for fighting opponents who lacked a real boxing résumé, he is facing the son of former unified heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. Rahman Jr. is a professional boxer who’s earned 12 victories with only one defeat. This will by far be Paul’s toughest test and someone he cannot take lightly in the ring.
They traded pleasantries during the press conference, and both made comments about some of the details surrounding the fight. While Paul said, “He’s going to get beat up by a singer, a musician, a seashell collector, a YouTuber. I’m all these things”, Rahman Jr. came back with, “I’m here to end this façade that he’s calling a career.”
Rahman Jr.’s comment could be considered as “low hanging fruit” since many have and will continue to point towards Paul’s career up to now as that. But there is some smart marketing regarding Paul and anything he is involved with. For Amanda Serrano’s last fight against Katie Taylor, the WWE was hired to do interviews and help promote the event, which was a genius move by Paul’s team and DAZN. The method by that Paul generates attention and income for anything he is involved with is currently second to none.
Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. takes place Aug. 6 on Showtime PPV
The topic of Paul was brought up on this new video podcast by ProBox TV and hosted by boxing’s own Roy Jones Jr., Antonio Tarver, Paulie Malignaggi, and Mike Goldberg. Jones Jr. started the segment and is a fan of what Paul is doing. He said, “Well, I’m going to start like this; First of all, if you are a boxer and you’re not taking note or notice of what Jake Paul is doing, you’re worrying about criticizing his boxing skills, then you’re the fool because he made 40 million last year.”
Jones Jr. is not lying as Paul has been a human cash register and everything, he touches turns into a bag full of money. Jones Jr. didn’t stop there and had some advice for those that only want to point at the level of opposition that Paul has faced and not the things outside of the ring. Jones Jr. said, “Actually, you should pay attention to what the hell he is doing outside of the ring. If you better yourself inside the ring and use what he is teaching you outside of the ring, then you probably can do what he is doing because he is doing a helluva job of teaching you guys how to use social media to up your grade. If you don’t take that lesson, then you’re crazy.”
Many people have different opinions on Paul and his career, but the Hall of Famer Jones Jr. makes some valid points that fighters need to pay attention to. The segment focuses more on the topic, and you can watch the rest of the interview on ProBox TV’s YouTube channel.