Jake Paul outpointed Anderson Silva in a gruelling battle to stay undefeated as a professional boxer.
The divisive YouTuber-turned-fighter overcame his toughest test in the sport to date in Arizona on Saturday night, going toe-to-toe with a UFC icon and knocking him down with a fierce combination in the eighth and final round before securing a deserved unanimous decision victory with scores of 77-74, 78-73 and 78-73.
A hard-fought win for Paul follows his successive triumphs over other former MMA stars in Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren, moving him to 6-0 as he laid down confident challenges to both free agent Nate Diaz and undisputed super-middleweight world champion Canelo Alvarez.
“I want Nate Diaz, who’s a b***h,” Paul said. “He tried to come into my locker room, he tried to cause some s**t.
“Then he always leaves the f*****g arena. So Nate Diaz, stop being a b***h and fight me. And Canelo, you too. You too Canelo.
“You guys said you can’t beat a striker, you can’t beat a legend like Anderson Silva. I just did it. So why can’t I beat Canelo? F**k y’all.”
On Saturday’s undercard, teenage lightweight sensation Ashton ‘H20’ Sylve continued his formidable knockout record and improved to 8-0 with a devastating one-punch stoppage of Braulio ‘El Chavo’ Rodriguez, who was stopped with a crushing counter left hook to the jaw in his first fight since 2019.
Alexandro Santiago forced the retirement of Antonio Nieves after the seventh round of their bantamweight meeting, while former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell was outpointed by ex-UFC middleweight Uriah Hall.
Another professional boxing debutant, physician and renowned YouTube star and social media influencer Mikhail ‘Doctor Mike’ Varshavski, was comfortably beaten by another former MMA fighter in Chris Avila.
The prelim action saw wins for local favourites Danny Barrios Flores and Adrian Rodriguez, plus heavyweight Jeremiah Milton and Anderson Silva’s training partner, Eliezer Silva.
