Cheavon Clarke says he is ready to accept the challenge of taking on Jake Paul - after Eddie Hearn threw his hat into the ring.
Hearn and Paul exchanged words as they cross-promoted Katie Taylor’s spectacular win over Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Prior to the fight, YouTube star-turned-boxer Paul vowed to beat anyone on Hearn’s roster with less than 10 professional fights.
"I believe that I will beat anybody on your roster that's under ten fights. Anyone. Any one of your fighters that's had under ten fights, easy. Any weight... no, any weight. Literally any weight," Paul said. "I will beat anybody on your roster. Let's run it up, no problem. Give me your best real boxer.”
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Hearn replied by offering up Clarke as a potential opponent, who won his professional debut last month after representing Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics.
"Chev Clarke, 1-0 right, boxed in the Olympics, didn't medal, 1-0 just had one professional fight. He's a cruiserweight, you can have him," Hearn said.
And Clarke has welcomed the prospect of fighting Paul, who has confirmed he will return to the ring on August 13, and insists his pedigree would teach the 5-0 fighter a lesson.
“Jake Paul’s been training, right? So a fight against me will show what he’s learnt,” Clarke told Mirror Fighting.
“We’ll find out, won’t we,” he laughs, when asked how the fight would go. “I think my pedigree would come forward.
“I’m up for fighting him,” he adds. “He wants to be a ‘real boxer’, he wants to fight a ‘real boxer’, so who am I to say no? Of course I’d fight him.
“Talk is cheap like free WiFi! I tweeted the other day, Fight Camp 2022 - we could have it there or wherever. I’d take a fight wherever.
“He’s been training, so you have to give him credit for that, but it’s just like anything else, learning a craft.
“Like him and his YouTube, I couldn’t just go on YouTube today and rack up the following he has, he’s dedicated and honed his craft to get that.
“That’s where dedicated boxing people are like, ‘you can’t just come ahead and jump ahead of the queue’.
“But that’s the world we’re in, it’s an entertainment business, and I’m here to entertain.”
Clarke scored a vicious knockout on his professional debut in February and is slated to return to the ring on May 21.
And he is enjoyed life as a professional and hoping for more big nights ahead - including a potential bout with Paul.
“I’m enjoying it, that’s why I do it. If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t be doing it,” Clarke says.
“My debut was good, I had a lot of people there and it was amazing, because going out with Team GB to a lot of these countries, especially during Covid, there weren’t a lot of people there.
“But on my debut, when I came out, it looked like the stadium was empty but you could see a lot of people there. Except from the main headline fight, I think I probably had the loudest ring entrance.
“It was a cool experience, good to get the win, and it’s just made me hungry for more.”
