Anderson Silva told Jake Paul he could do "anything he set his mind to" during an inspirational childhood moment for the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
During his legendary reign as UFC middleweight champion, Silva was a fans' favourite with his explosive style and historic wins over the likes of Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen. And amongst his millions of fans was a 13-year-old middle school student from Ohio named Jake Paul, who watched his biggest wins with his brother Logan and dad Greg.
In 2010, Paul attended a fight night at a Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, where Silva was making a guest appearance. He wangled his way to the VIP area, where he and brother Logan snapped a picture with the legendary fighter, who at the time had just beaten Demian Maia to extend his winning streak to 12 fights.
And Paul admitted during an chat with Mirror Fighting that he does wonder how differently his life would have been had his first brush with celebrity been a bad one. "Who knows?" Paul said. "The butterfly effect is so scary to even think about or try to comprehend.
"Every single thing that happens in someone's life changes the rest of it, period. Nothing else needs to be said and if he would have been mean to me, who knows if I would have liked fighting or continued to watch fighting... Who knows? I don't, but here we are now and it feels destined.
"What's weird is he told me that I could do anything that I set my mind to. That's what he told me when we met when I was 13-years-old. So, I guess now, I'm setting my mind to knocking him out - maybe it'll come back full circle for him in a weird way!"
Paul has been out of the ring for what will have been just under 11 months when he returns on Saturday. He had fought four times in 13 months during the pandemic era of boxing, and made the conscious decision to take the early part of 2022 off to focus on promoting Amanda Serrano for her super-fight with Katie Taylor in April.
But when he did make plans for a return, his Madison Square Garden fight date in August was doomed from the get go. Talks with rival Tommy Fury struggled on until a hasty announcement was made just six weeks out from fight night, before the Brit pulled out and was replaced by Hasim Rahman Jr, who was pulled from the bout on a weeks' notice by the commission due to weight issues.
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And despite having an unusually healthy level of respect and admiration for his opponent in Silva, Paul will carry the annoyance of this past few months to the ring with him. He declared that he has "two chips on his shoulder", and joked that he will apologise to Silva after landing another vicious knockout to go 6-0.
"I've got two chips on my shoulder, one on each side," Paul explained. "I love proving people wrong and I've used all of the things that have happened this year as motivation. I think everything happens for a reason and someone has to pay for all of those things and October 29 I get to unleash violence and create a war and get those emotions off my chest.
"He's a great fighter, so we'll see. I don't think he can take it for long, I'm charged up right now and I've had the best camp ever, I'm feeling better than ever. You have to think, I've only been boxing professionally for two years, this is my third year! As a pro, when people saw me fight Tyron Woodley they only saw my second year of boxing, now it's been a whole extra year of training.
"If you think about how good I got in my first year, how good I got in my second year, my third year has been the most progress so far and no-one has seen that. They're going to see a new fighter and I'm so excited for that."
