[ad_1]
Count Sean O’Malley among those surprised by Jake Paul’s performance in his eight-round boxing win over Anderson Silva.
“He impressed me, Jake impressed me,” O’Malley said recently on The MMA Hour. “I thought the later the fight went on, I thought Anderson might kind of put it on him, if it continued to go into the later rounds. But I think it just goes to show how good of shape Jake was in, how serious he took the fight camp, how serious he takes the sport.
“He was throwing good combos on the inside, he was going to the body nice, he was doing a lot of things right. And I was very impressed with Jake.”
O’Malley, 28, had a ringside seat in Glendale, Ariz., to see Paul’s unanimous decision win over the former UFC middleweight champion. Despite Silva’s wealth of experience, Paul took over in the late rounds and even dropped Silva with a combination in Round 8, ultimately earning the win on all three judges’ scorecards. It easily was the biggest win of Paul’s young boxing career, which also includes knockouts of former Bellator and ONE Championship titleholder Ben Askren and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.
As for Paul’s next step, O’Malley only sees one logical option — a big-money bout against ex-UFC star Nate Diaz, especially after the melee that unfolded backstage at the Paul vs. Silva event between Paul and Diaz’s respective teams.
That being said, O’Malley can’t help but wonder if Paul’s unexpected performance against the 47-year-old Silva will change Diaz’s mind about whether it’s worth the risk.
“I always want to see the biggest fights. Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz is the biggest fight, O’Malley said. “That’s what I would like to see. Jake, I think, wants to be taken more seriously by fighting a real boxer boxer and go after a belt. But I think I’m like, you might as well fight Nate Diaz. And I don’t know if Nate takes that fight. Nate might’ve seen — you know, Jake looked good. It’s not like Nate probably looked at him and thought, ‘Well, I’ll go in there and just whoop him.’ So that might be a fight that Nate doesn’t even really take.
“I don’t know if Jake beats Nate — what he showed versus Anderson, I would say that there’s a very good chance. So I think it would be an epic fight.”
[ad_2]
Source link