Jake Paul has dispelled a lot of rumors about himself over the years but the latest one involving his boxing career actually got under his skin.
While he always understood there would be criticism aimed at him for his professional fighting career, Paul hated that he actually had to answer questions about the legitimacy of the results whenever he stepped in the ring.
The latest controversy surrounded a supposed clause in his opponents’ contract that stated they were not allowed to knock Paul out during the fight. How that would even be possible remains a mystery but Paul fired back at those claims by upping the ante in his rematch against Tyron Woodley by offering the former UFC champion an extra $500,000 bonus if he could win their upcoming rematch by knockout or TKO.
“There’s rumors going around that everyone sort of has come to believe that my fights are rigged or I don’t allow my opponents to knock me out in the contract,” Paul addressed when appearing on The MMA Hour. “It’s just not true. It’s completely bullsh*t.
“Of course all these people are going to do is try to discredit me. Because when you’re at the top, that’s what happens. I just want to nip the rumors in the [bud] and give my opponent — contractually, I’m giving Tyron an extra $500,000 if he can knock me out. It just nips the rumors in the [bud] and shows people that all of my fights have been real, are real and will continue to be real.”
As a social influencer who came to fame through YouTube videos, Paul relished being an internet troll at times so he was always going to have detractors when it came to his boxing career.
Conspiracy theories are nothing new but Paul is quick to point out the severe ramifications that would fall upon his head if he actually tried to influence the result of any of his fights.
“It’s illegal to rig a fight or to stage a fight,” Paul said. “It’s illegal to have things like that because it’s fraud. There’s outcomes. You can’t change the outcomes of a professionally sanctioned bout. It’s illegal. You would end up in jail. The fact that people would say that, we just wanted to squash the rumors.”
The origin behind the rumor that Paul made his opponents promise not to knock him out may have actually started with Bellator fighter Dillon Danis, who might just be the biggest troll in all of combat sports these days.
Danis once perpetuated that story during his own appearance on The MMA Hour as he jabbed at Paul in an attempt to land a boxing match against him.
When Tommy Fury dropped out of their scheduled fight on Dec. 18, Paul admits for a brief moment he thought about Danis as a potential opponent but he lost interest in that idea rather quickly.
“He was always in the back of my mind,” Paul said about the grappler turned MMA fighter. “It would just be fun.
“But again, he’s a fat pig right now saying sh*t. lunatic, in jail, doing whatever, causing ruckuses. I would love to knock him out but I think that one’s going to happen in the streets, not in the ring.”
As for the fight he’s actually got in front of him, Paul may have offered Woodley an extra $500,000 for a knockout but he has no intentions of losing much less being separated from consciousness.
Instead, Paul hopes to rectify his split decision win over Woodley from September by putting “The Chosen One” to sleep in the rematch.
“The motivation is to prove to everybody that I can knock out Tyron,” Paul said. “It wasn’t a split decision last time and I’m going to finish it and not leave it up to the judges and we’ll go on from there.”