YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Pau l will have his final sparring session just four days before stepping in the ring against UFC legend Anderson Silva.
Many boxers opt to have their last spar around a week out from a fight, but Paul’s trainer BJ Flores has revealed the 25-year-old likes to spar during fight week. Paul has sparred over 50 professional boxers in the past year, bringing former light-heavyweight world champion Chad Dawson and Tyson Fury's former opponent Steve Cunningham into his training camp to prepare for Silva.
Paul sparred twice last week and a session today will mark his last before facing Silva, with Flores insisting their main focus is ensuring ‘The Problem Child’ can make a career-low weight of 187lb for the fight. “We travel to Phoenix on Sunday, we’ll shake out on Monday,” Flores said. “We’ll spar one final time on Tuesday, he likes to spar the week of the fight. After that, we have an open workout Wednesday, a final press conference on Thursday and a weigh-in on Friday. He’ll be ready to go.
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“We sparred twice the week before fight week, he’s in such good shape right now. We’re not doing as many rounds but we’re keeping him sharp. Keeping him firing on all the right levels. The main thing right now is just making weight, he’s already close. We’ve been doing distance runs for 12 weeks. He’s prepared to go the eight rounds no problem but we’re also very realistic that this fight might not go the distance.”
Paul is arguably in for the toughest challenge of his professional career against 47-year-old UFC legend Silva. ‘The Spider’ showed signs of the unorthodox style that guided him to the longest title reign in UFC history when he knocked out Tito Ortiz in his last ring venture, outpointing former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in his fight before that. Paul idolised Silva during his youth, but has vowed to “respectfully” knock him out whilst being cordial with the Brazilian in the build-up to their clash.
10 months would have passed by the time Paul steps in the ring against Silva, with his past two bookings against Tommy Fury and Hasim Rahman Jr both falling apart this year. Flores insists it’s “impossible” for anyone to know how good Paul is - other than those close to him - claiming ‘The Problem Child’ has made huge strides since knocking out Tyron Woodley in their rematch last December.
“It’s an unbelievable amount of progress that he’s had over the last 12 to 18 months,” Flores added. "It’s really impossible for anybody really to know how good Jake is and how he’s doing right now, because he’s gotten so much better since last year that it’s impossible to handicap that. Over the last year, he’s sparred an extra 250 rounds with at least 50 different sparring partners. All of that makes him a lot better.”
