Oscar De La Hoya Backs Jake Paul to Someday Beat “Great Champions”, Fight Canelo Alvarez
Oscar De La Hoya believes that Jake Paul is the real deal who can beat good champions, and someday even beat great champions.
YouTube superstar Jake Paul crafted his own space in the industry after he made the switch to boxing. Starting his career with exhibition bouts against fellow YouTubers and other athletes, Paul quickly made his way up to land a fight with a professional mixed martial arts athlete.
After knocking out retired basketball player Nate Robinson in the second round, Paul went on to win against Ben Askren via a technical knockout in the first round. While he proved the critics wrong on the occasion, many continued to speculate about his fighting abilities. He then won against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley twice, once by split decision and the other by knockout in the sixth round.
Oscar De La Hoya has shown his support for Paul and backs him to beat great champions someday. ‘The Golden Boy’ believes that Paul will go on to achieve many great things in boxing a couple of years from now.
Oscar De La Hoya backs Jake Paul to be a future world champion
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, De La Hoya stated that Paul has what it takes to possibly beat “great champions” and expressed his strong support for “The Problem Child”.
“Let me tell you on thing about Jake Paul, he’s the real deal, I’m going to tell you that,” De La Hoya said. “With only four or five fights and the way he’s taking it serious, Jake Paul is the real deal. And I dare anyone who has boxing experience, who has MMA experience, to call him out because I’ll tell you one thing, this guy can beat a lot of good champions and even maybe great champions.”
The boxing Hall of Famer is impressed by Paul’s work ethics as he continued, “Jake Paul is taking it serious. This is not a one-off, a two-off, a three-off, no. He wants to become a world champion and there’s no other way out of becoming world champion, you have to fight the very best. I just want to say that but Jake Paul is doing the right thing. He’s on his way to becoming a contender and he’s on his way to becoming a world contender and then a world champion, if he keeps it up.”
Golden Boy promoter also opined that Paul has the potential to earn a fight against an elite fighter like Canelo Alvarez someday.
“I think, in order to fight an elite fighter like that, like Canelo, you have to prove yourself,” said De La Hoya. “You have to have world title. You have to fight a few contenders, a few world champions. You can’t just go in there. [Because] It wouldn’t be fair for other world champions waiting in line to fight Canelo.”
