Jake Paul is elite when it comes to grabbing a hold of fans and media’s attention spans in a world where there’s so much great content to consume.
He’s quite the natural, honestly. From taking over the Vine app years ago to spinning a Disney career into a mainstay on YouTube, followed by stepping in the ring, Paul, and of course his brother Logan, know exactly what strings to pull to get our ears and eyes focused on them — and you can add the WBA president Gilberto Mendoza to the list of people paying attention.
Mendoza hinted this week, after seeing Paul defeat Mike Perry, that he’d sanction an official world championship bout for the internet sensation — providing the opponent is right.
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Since turning pro in 2020, the “Problem Child” has faced waves and waves of criticism both far and wide, especially when it comes to his opponent selection. The Ohio native went from facing fellow YouTubers to basketball players to former UFC champions. And instead of facing Mike Tyson over the weekend, Paul locked horns with bare-knuckle boxer Perry. However, after Paul dismantled ‘Platinum Mike’, he reminded people that he plans to fight for a cruiserweight world title in two years’ time.
In the past, Paul has received push-back for this outlandish claim, but he has been steadfast in his belief that this will happen before he hits 30. Famed Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, gave Paul credit (in his mind) for calling the YouTube boxer ‘average’, but Paul couldn’t stand the sound of that and fired right back.
Also, when talking with TalkSPORT a year later, Paul reiterated his goal of fighting for a world title:
“I want to become a world champion, I will become a world champion. … It’s definitely gonna happen [fighting for a title] and it might be light-heavyweight, it might be cruiserweight, we’ll see. …and look, that’s like a 24-36 month goal. I’m 26, coming into my athletic prime. …So that’s probably when I’ll make a run for it. But man, I just want to do it because I think it’s funny. I think to go from boxing Deji to being a world champ in a period of years, nobody thinks I can do it. They think it’s impossible, they think I’m crazy, they think I’m lying when I say that, but I’m being serious.”
Jake Paul could one day box Julio Cesar Chavez Jr for a cruiserweight championship
Following Paul’s latest victory and reassurance about fighting for a cruiserweight world title in two years, WBA President Gilberto Mendoza took to X.com to open the door for Paul and former world champ Julio Cesar Chavez Jr to walk through, stating:
I am not against a @jakepaul v. @jcchavezjr for a championship…
— Gilberto J Mendoza (@GilberticoWBA) July 21, 2024
While an immediate title fight for Paul is extremely hard to justify at this point in his career, with a constant increase in caliber of opponent over the next few years, anything is possible, but putting Paul in a title fight seems more like a money ploy than anything else.
