Michael Bisping Shuts Down Jake Paul’s Olympic Hopes: No ‘Cherry-Picking’
Michael Bisping has some reservations regarding Jake Paul’s Olympic ambitions.
After the United States failed to secure a boxing medal at this year’s Summer Games in Paris, ‘The Problem Child’ declared that he would enter the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and end America’s drought.
By the time the next Olympics rolls around, it will have been 20 years since Deontay Wilderer brought home a bronze medal in the heavyweight division. You’d have to go back another 20 years to find its last gold medal victory which came courtesy of former WBO champion Ray Mercer at the 1988 games in Seoul.
If Paul manages to fight his way through the Olympic trials and make the podium in four years, he will stand alongside some of boxing’s biggest names.
“Fair enough, the man wants to go and compete in the Olympics, and you know what, I’ve actually got a lot of respect for him,” Bisping said via his YouTube channel. “Jake Paul is kind of doing it the opposite way around because he’s very famous, he’s had a lot of professional boxing fights, and he’s going to go to the amateurs. But the guy that just won the Olympic gold medal has actually had four professional boxing bouts as well.
“Now, if Jake Paul were to win the Olympics, I mean, that would be incredible, and he would join the likes of the great Muhammad Ali, the GOAT George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland—the list goes on and on” (h/t MMA News).
jake paul will be in for a rude awakening at the Olympics
However, Bisping made it clear that competing in the Olympics will be unlike any of the professional bouts Paul has competed in thus far. With the tournament format, Paul will be deprived of advantages like cutting weight and cherry-picking past-their-prime opponents.
“For Jake Paul, if you did go and fight in the Olympics, well, first of all, it wouldn’t be his promotion, would it? So he wouldn’t be able to cherry-pick opponents; he wouldn’t be able to take people that are way past their sell-by date, like Mike Tyson. If he goes to the Olympics, a lot of things will change, that’s for sure. Number one, he wouldn’t be able to cut weight because, in the Olympics, you’re going to have to box every few days.
“It wouldn’t be his promotion, so everything’s not going to be centered around him. There wouldn’t be a massive payday on display; he will be doing it literally to represent his country, to test himself, and potentially to become an Olympic gold medalist.”
Paul is currently scheduled to square off with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson on Friday, November 15 at the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Last month, he earned a sixth-round TKO against the BKFC’s ‘King of Violence’ Mike Perry in Miami. Overall, Paul is 10-1 with seven of his victories coming by way of knockout.
