Jake Paul’s five career wins have come against the likes YouTuber Ali Eson Gib, retired basketball star Nate Robinson, retired former ONE and Bellator champion Ben Askren, and most recently, twice against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. 

In the December sequel, Paul scored a sensational one-punch knockout of Woodley.

Those who are interested in Paul’s boxing career and ascent are now calling for the 24-year-old content creator turned KO artist to fight a true boxer instead of celebrities and faded and overblown MMA fighters who are forced to climb weight classes to face him. 

In addition to former UFC great Anderson Silva – who has twice already shown great accounts of himself as a boxer with wins this year against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tito Ortiz – it’s actually Chavez Jr. who has the name and game to tickle Paul’s true pugilistic palette.

If you ask the former WBC middleweight champion Chavez Jr., he’s interested in the chance to potentially stop Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) in his tracks. 

“Jake Paul and his people contacted me regarding a fight with Paul,” said Chavez Jr. told Fight News. “I said ‘yes,’ but then again [advisor] Lupe Valencia, who is with Paul now and used to be with me a few years back, said they offered me $1-to-$3 million dollars plus pay per view. When it’s a fight that can sell millions and can break records because he is popular and I have a name, I’m a former world champion, so I made it clear that it has to be a 50/50 split for me to take the fight.

“Take into consideration that I have to go all the way up to 190 pounds. Jake Paul is a big guy and weight matters, so it’s a risk. Their people may want to see me lose and take advantage, but he doesn’t know how to box. I know I can knock him out.

The 35-year-old son of Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez has had an uneven and unfulfilled 18-year professional career, even more so since 2017 with a 3-4 record.

He returned to ring Dec. 18 – the same night Paul crushed Woodley – to score a ten-round unanimous decision over David Zegarra in Mexico in a fight that was reportedly contracted to take place at a maximum of 187.4 pounds. 

“I just want to be treated fairly,” said Chavez. “What I bring to the table and my name, I have 61 fights already, and yes I haven’t looked the same in my last two fights, but I fought with serious injuries in my body that I will tell you about later on. I’m feeling better little by little and if the Paul fight happens, I will be very well prepared to win. I will not lose.”

Chavez Jr. took it a step further in a separate interview with TV Boxeo earlier in the week proclaiming that he’d hang up the gloves should he lose to Paul.

"I can only talk about myself, not about other people, I am not here to criticize anyone. I talk by analyzing boxing. I hope I can get a few million [for a fight with] with Jake Paul. If he beats me, I'll retire, I don't get paid. I don't want money if I don't beat him. Retirement [if I lose], [and I'm] not interested in his money if I do not win," said Chavez Jr. 

"People want me to beat him, [Jake Paul] is strong and he knows how to organize the fights well at his weight, it would be a matter of reaching an agreement. [Paul and his brother] generate a lot of expectations and money for the morbid, a match with me would be good. These [brothers] haven't learned how to fight well and I can take advantage of that. Jake Paul can punch, but he's not a boxer."

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com