Jake Paul and Mike Perry will throw down in a Most Valuable Promotions boxing match in Tampa, Florida on Saturday night, and one of the most prominent voices in boxing has weighed in with his take on the matchup.
Matchroom Boxing supremo Eddie Hearn has offered his take on the 200-pound matchup, which takes place on Saturday night at the Amalie Arena, where he says there’s a clear favourite in the matchup.
Hearn thinks that Paul’s size and power make him the man to beat in the matchup, so much so that Hearn offered an extreme, tongue-in-cheek, suggestion to Perry to avoid a pummeling at the hands of “The Problem Child,” who could be as much as 30 pounds heavier than Perry on fight night.
“Break his legs!” he told DAZN.
“Mike Perry is a welterweight that I think was in the UFC at middleweight and the fight is at 200 pounds. He has absolutely no chance.
“And, by the way, Mike Perry I’m sure is a really tough guy, and at 160-170 pounds he’s probably a right handful. But you can’t give 30 pounds away.
“Jake’s not great but he’s a big lump and he’s strong and he can punch a little bit as well, I think he’ll stop Mike Perry.”
Paul has made admirable progress as a fighter since he first pulled on a set of boxing gloves and stepped into the ring to face influencer AnEsonGib back in 2020, and Hearn says the YouTuber-turned-fighter has reached a tricky crossroads where he may soon have to decide whether to focus on facing non-boxers to avoid being exposed.
“The Jake Paul machine works when he’s in a big fight. There’s some interest in Mike Perry and, if the Mike Tyson fight does happen, which I don’t think it will, I’m sure that will do big numbers, but he needs a dance partner,” he explained.
“He’s stuck between a boxer and an influencer. The influencer fights are going to make him more money, but he wants the credibility for boxing but he’s not actually willing to take a proper fight in boxing.
“A part of him wants to establish himself and get the credibility as a boxer, but he can’t fight anyone too good because he’ll get beat.”
Hearn also offered some sage advice to both Paul and his longtime influencer rival KSI over their long-awaited, but still-not-booked boxing clash, which would be the biggest fight between two influencer fighters in the genre’s short history.
“Jake Paul and KSI do huge numbers,” said Hearn.
“In the UK you’re talking about one million buys plus. In the US it will do a strong number, globally both guys have incredible followings in key territories.
“It’s a huge fight. But one of the problems is both guys are quite young and both have big egos. Both guys have opinions about their value and their worth, and that’s bigger than the other person.
“To make a fight like that will take both of them to really want that fight and come together and say ‘regardless of whether I think I’m a little bit bigger than you, shall we just say it’s 50-50 for all the money in the pot and let’s make a fortune’. Because as you become older and more sensible, that’s what fighters get to sometimes. They [initially] think it’s 60-40 in their favour, but in the end you’re better off going 50-50.
“But the longer you wait and if there’s a bad performance… we’re lucky that this fight is still big because Jake Paul lost to Tommy Fury and if he doesn’t look great against Mike Perry and if KSI doesn’t look good in his 2 vs 1 madness – the fight starts to diminish. My advice to those boys would be make it while it’s hot.”
