The world was shocked when Jake Paul, washed-up YouTuber and ongoing joke in the boxing world, knocked out Olympic wrestler and former Bellator champion Ben Askren in the first round.

The main event was fought as a professional boxing match and will go on Paul’s official record, making him 3-0. Although advertised as one, this wasn’t really a professional fight. Askren is a retired MMA fighter and has been for almost two years. And considering his major lack of training, this fight was merely just a cash-grab and full-out publicity stunt. At the end of the day, Paul and Askren both get to happily cash in their six figure checks and Jake can continue to call himself a “pro boxer” to anyone who will listen.

The fight was announced December 22, 2020 and was set to be held in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the event sponsored by Triller. I don’t know who challenged who, but it’s obvious that from the start they’ve hated each other. During the press conference they were hurling insults left and right, probably to generate more buzz around the fight and intimidate one another. “We’ll see,” Paul said. “I don’t think he makes it out of two rounds. Look at the guy. He’s got a beer belly. Clearly, he didn’t take training camp seriously, and we all did the talking. We did the entertainment sh*t. But now it’s time to let the fists fly.” But Askren didn’t let him have the final word, saying right as he made his exit, “The other thing, people told me, but I didn’t realize until I got so close, but that hairline’s moving back really quickly.”

One of the biggest speculations surrounding the fight is how much they actually trained. With only 4 months of preparation, both fighters stepped out at the weigh-in in two obviously different shapes. Askren hit the heaviest mark of his career at 191 lbs, his usual being Welterweight at around 170. We need to remember that Askren is in-fact retired, so of course he put on 20 extra pounds as any middle-aged retired man would. The question is if he even trained at all. I’m sure he did a little bit but nowhere near as much if this were a serious UFC fight. AND Askren isn’t even a boxer, he’s a wrestler. So to say he’s a legitimate opponent is hearsay.

Surprisingly, all bets were on Paul to win against Askren since he’s “undefeated”, and Paul proved everyone right when he showed solid technique and knocked Askren out at the 1:59 mark of Round 1 with a devastating right hand.

What’s funny is that even though he got knocked out, Askren was shown after the fight with his wife and they were laughing. Probably because they knew he just won $500,000 for basically doing nothing. Why would a world-class fighter with 2 NCAA championships come out of retirement to fight a YouTube wannabe boxer? Answer: money. This is the biggest payday Askren has seen his entire career; he was a champion and never even made this much. So no wonder he was smiling after the fight. He didn’t care that he lost because he’s $500,000 richer now.

Paul on the other hand is claiming this fight sold 1.7 million pay-per-views, generating over $70 million in revenue, meaning he made roughly $65 million in total. That’s absolutely absurd. No way he made that much in any capacity and 1.7 million pay-per-views is just outrageous. 1.7 million people paid $50 a piece to watch this fight? LOL. UFC President Dana White even said in response, “The numbers that you’re hearing that they did are full of s**t. They’re full of s**t, they didn’t pull those kinds of numbers at all.” Sources have said Paul actually made $690,000. He’s only fronting because he wants to keep up his made-up “champion” persona.

I’m still waiting for Paul to fight someone of real substance: someone’s who’s not retired and is an actual boxer or MMA fighter for the love of god. Dana White said, “Do you know what would happen to this guy [in the UFC]? He ain’t fighting in the UFC.”

Paul’s loud mouth and incessant taunting has captured the attention of several MMA champions, like Daniel Cormier and Kamaru Usman, just itching to quiet Paul’s ego once and for all. If Paul fought Usman, the reigning UFC Welterweight Champion who’s defeated every single person in his division, he would absolutely get slaughtered within the first 20 seconds. And that’s exactly what he needs. A firm humbling so he can stop flaunting his custom-made championship belt he got himself.

Can we stop telling Jake that he’s a pro? He’s a delinquent vlogger who’s just recently taken up boxing as a hobby. He is not a pro. He’s fought another YouTuber, NBA player, and retired wrestler and he wants to call himself a professional boxer. Give me a break. As Dana’s famous last words, ““Why don’t you go fight a f#3%*! boxer?”