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Andreas Hale, ESPN
Although his next two fights are against a bare-knuckle fighter and a 58-year-old former world champion, Jake Paul has made it clear that his pursuit of a world championship is still on. He plans on holding cruiserweight gold in 2025.
“I believe in 2025 I will most likely be a world champion,” Paul said to ESPN. “I think I’m ready for it in the next couple of months and I’m going to go for it in 2025.”
After spending the early portion of his boxing career facing mostly MMA fighters, Jake Paul appeared to pivot toward building his credibility as a boxer at the end of 2023 and began lining up opponents with legitimate boxing experience.
Paul scored first-round knockouts over journeymen Andre August in December 2023 and Ryan Bourland this past March but then moved off that path when he stunned the world by announcing a boxing match with Mike Tyson, who hadn’t won a professional fight in over twenty years. The fight was scheduled for July 20 and to be live streamed on Netflix, but a medical condition forced Tyson out of the bout. Former MMA fighter and current BKFC star Mike Perry stepped up to face Paul on July 20 as the Tyson fight was rescheduled to November 15.
But Paul says that this is nothing more than a brief detour and he plans to fight for a world title immediately after the Tyson fight.
Paul agreed to the idea that a fight with Tyson was simply too good to pass up but that he has been working diligently on sharpening his skills to become a champion in the next 18 months. Even though he has only spent a little over five minutes in the ring over the past seven months, he said he’s improved immensely as a boxer.
“It’s really my God-given ability and willpower to do this,” Paul said. “People haven’t really seen me fight in the past year because of two first-round knockouts. If Mike Perry can make it out of the first round maybe people will see a little more of me, but I don’t believe that anybody can hang with me at 200 pounds.
“Cruiserweight is what my body was made for. My punches aren’t the same [at lower weight classes] I don’t have that power or pop. 200 pounds is definitely where I was meant to fight at.”
Currently, the four major world titles at cruiserweight are occupied by WBO champion Chris Billiam-Smith (20-1, 13 KOs), WBA champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs), WBC champion Norair Mikaeljan (27-2, 12 KOs) and IBF champion Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs).
Paul is not currently ranked in the top 15 by any of the major sanctioning bodies and will have a lot of work to do in order to climb the ranks. But Paul reaffirmed that the fights with Tyson and Perry won’t slow down his mission of acquiring championship gold.
“I’m not slowing down the train for anybody,” Paul said. “People need to stop doubting me and know I take this sport more seriously than 99% of pro boxers. I’m obsessed with this. When I put my mind to something, I become the best at it.”