Andre Ward, once considered the greatest fighter on the planet, is said to have called for an exhibition bout with YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
The former two-weight world champion was initially the super-middleweight title holder, before moving up to light-heavyweight where he reigned before retiring unbeaten in 2017. And five years after hanging up his gloves, Ward says that he could be tempted back into the ring for a big-money exhibition with Paul.
Standing at an even six-foot, Ward could prove a similar size to the YouTuber, and would be far and away the best fighter he has ever been in the ring with, even in light spars. Paul trains with the likes of former world title challengers J'Leon Love and BJ Flores, and has even moved around with Jean Pascal, who is also a former light-heavyweight champion.
But Ward is considered one of the greatest of all time, and would likely be a monstrous test for Paul. Last weekend, he was inducted into the boxing hall-of-fame alongside Floyd Mayweather in a star-studded triple-header class to make up for two years of cancelled ceremonies.
And Mayweather claims that Ward expressed an interest in facing the younger Paul brother after seeing him take on the elder sibling; Logan, last summer.
"I spoke to Andre Ward, if you guys saw us talking on stage at the International Boxing Hall of Fame," Mayweather said today at the announcement of his next exhibition. "Andre Ward was talking to me and he said he wanted to do, or he didn't mind doing an exhibition against Jake Paul."
Despite his brother Logan competing in a lucrative exhibition bout with Mayweather last summer, that reportedly drew in over 1million buys on pay-per-view, Jake Paul has indicated that he would rather stay fighting in sanctioned events. He makes his ring return against an as-yet-unnamed opponent on August 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Would you watch an exhibition bout between Andre Ward and Jake Paul? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Paul is 5-0 as a professional boxer, and has stopped the four opponents he has faced to date. However, he has come in for criticism over fighting non-boxers, having competed with a YouTuber, a basketball star and two MMA world champions.
Ward, on the other hand, has a 32-0 professional record that includes ten world title fights and wins over the likes of Carl Froch and Sergey Kovalev. He also had over 115 fights at the amateur level before turning professional, while Paul had just one white collar boxing match.
Paul is currently said to be fighting Tommy Fury in his next fight, although he has denied the claim with an indirect shot at rival promoter Eddie Hearn. After the Brit leaked plans for Paul to fight Fury, he tweeted that anything Hearn says is "rubbish", and has kept his opponent close to his chest.
