Count Sean O’Malley among those surprised by Jake Paul’s performance in his eight-round boxing win over Anderson Silva.
“He was a great fighter, Jake is a good guy,” O’Malley stated recently in The MMA Hour .. Anderson could put it on me if the fight continued into the final rounds. It just shows how in good shape Jake was, and how serious Anderson took his fight camp.
“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. This was easily the most significant win in Paul’s early boxing career. It also included knockouts by former Bellator titleholder Ben Askren, former ONE Championship champion Tyron Woodley and former UFC champ Tyron Smith.
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.
O’Malley cannot help but wonder whether Paul’s surprise performance against the year old Silva will make Diaz reconsider the decision about taking the risk.
“I always want to see the biggest fights. Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz is the biggest fight, O’Malley said. That’s exactly what I want 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 may have seen it — Jake looks good. Nate didn’t look at Jake and think, “Well, let’s go in there, and whoop him.” So it’s possible that Nate won’t take part in that fight.
” I don’t know whether Jake will beat Nate, but based on what Anderson showed against Jake, I think there is a good chance. So I think it would be an epic fight.”
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