Jake Paul vs Alex Pereira is one fight most aficionados and pundits don’t see coming together. While one fighter is an active UFC champion, still under contract, the other is a budding athlete who just happened to call him out. But according to Chael Sonnen, Paul vs Pereira just could happen despite Dana White’s differences with the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned boxer.
In fact, Sonnen says that the dream bout would happen only if White approves it and here in this case, since the opponent is UFC’s LHW champion ‘Poatan’ Pereira who has a nuclear missile for a left hand, he might as well let Paul take the heat, lay back and enjoy the result.
“Somebody that hasn’t been the greatest advocate of Jake Paul in this entire boxing experiment is Dana White. But you want to know the one guy that Dana White just might give a carve-out to go do that boxing match because he would enjoy the result? That’s Alex Pereira. Like, I mean, that’s the oldest one in the book.”
Unlike others like Michael Bisping who saw no way around it, Sonnen believes that the bad blood between Paul and White will prompt the CEO to unleash ‘Poatan’ on Paul.
Furthermore, the ‘Bad Guy’ also warned Paul to be wary of who you call out, and challenging the Brazilian stone-faced killer is not something he’d want but something he’d regret.
However, amidst the rampant criticisms, boxing legend, Terence Crawford showered praise on ‘The Problem Child,’ crediting that the 27-year-old has a cracking right hand.
Crawford on Jake Paul after his win over Mike Perry
‘The Problem Child’ on Saturday stunned the whole MMA community, handing Mike Perry his second professional boxing loss via R6 TKO. ‘The Platinum’ superstar did not have an answer to Paul’s thudding punches and eventually succumbed to the Ohio native’s barrages.
While many MMA gurus are criticizing Paul’s, deeming that his win as a cruiserweight against a natural welterweight like Perry is nothing but stupidity. And they aren’t wrong. The only active boxer in his own weight class Paul has ever faced was Tommy Fury and that remains the American’s only professional loss till date.
Despite these ongoing criticisms, WBO & WBA welterweight champ, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford did not throw shade at the boxer. Speaking to Ariel Helwani, he said that while Paul was getting better, he needed to work on his stamina but for the most part had gained the champion boxer’s respect.
“I’ve gained a lot of respect for Jake because he’s not a YouTuber that is just boxing just to box. He actually trains and actually wants to get better and actually has got better and really putting his time, focus and energy into boxing, so you’ve got to respect that.”
Terence Crawford says he "gained a lot of respect" for Jake Paul 🥊
"A lot of people write Jake off, but Jake can punch with that right. He’s got a nice right hand.”
▶️ https://t.co/i9jZRcAl4N #TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/mDz7ZSVdO9
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) July 22, 2024
Of course, Paul has come a long way from where he started but the fact remains that all the guys he has fought have either been old, retired mixed martial artists or guys with terrible records. Even his next fight is against Mike Tyson. Tyson is a god inside that ring. At least he was in the 80s and the 90s. Now he’s 58-years-old. So go figure!
