Jake Paul fights for the sixth time (officially) Saturday night at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. Paul, 25, is 5-0 with four wins by KO. Anderson Silva, his 47-year-old opponent, is a UFC legend who is 3-1 as a boxer, although he’s only fought twice since 2021. His other two bouts were in 1998 and 2005 — defeating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a split decision in June 2021 and knocking out fellow MMA legend Tito Ortiz (in his boxing debut) in September 2021.
Paul has been ready to fight for a while — a fight against Tommy Fury was called off when Fury had visa problems (following a prior cancellation because of a broken rib). Paul’s replacement opponent, Hasim Rahman Jr., called off their August bout over weight issues. This week, there were stories circulating that Silva was knocked out in sparring, which Silva walked back, saying it was lost in translation from a month-old interview.
We just want to see Jake Paul fight, dammit!
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The odds
Paul is all the way up to a -225 favorite on BetMGM as of Friday morning (he was -150 Wednesday, -160 Thursday, and -190 Friday; you can keep up with the current odds here); Silva is a +200 underdog (he was +160 Friday). If you feel a draw coming on, you can get 12-1 odds.
Here’s a video of Paul’s highlights to quickly get you up to speed
Is Jake Paul still kind of a joke?
Not really. He’s a 25-year-old multi-millionaire with nearly unlimited training resources and talented athletic gifts. Yes, he’s wisely chosen opponents he could beat, but what young fresh fighter hasn’t? Even Rocky did it in the movies. As Paul gains stature, he’ll likely line up more respected opponents — he tried to fight Tommy Fury twice, for instance.
Chordale Booker told Steve Berman in May 2021 that he liked Paul as a fighter. “A lot of people are overlooking that he actually is taking the sport seriously. I’m not gonna say he’s naturally gifted, but he’s gotten better every time he’s stepped in the ring… I’ve seen his amateur fight against the YouTuber, then another amateur fight against a YouTuber, then he had that pro fight against a YouTuber, and then he had a pro fight against Nate (Robinson), and then he had a pro fight against (Ben) Askren. Even though he’s been ending in one round, he’s (throwing) the punches the right way.”
Paul has also been good for boxing, for all his detractors. His fights are major draws and he tends to feature a women’s fight on the undercard (unified world champion Amanda Serrano has been a fixture in previous fights). The purses he offers are massive and he’s a natural promoter for both his fight and the undercards.
While Paul was knocking out influencers and retired NBA stars in his early fights, his last two against Tyron Woodley were slightly more…professional? He won an eight-round split decision last August before signing Woodley up as Fury’s initial replacement the week before last Christmas. Paul knocked out Woodley in the sixth.
How to watch the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva fight
If you want to watch the fight, you can buy it for $59.99 on Showtime or the Showtime app, which you can get on AppleTV, FireStick — all the usual places. We’ll have a live blog of the fight here Saturday night (Paul and Silva are expected to fight around 11:30 p.m. ET)
A handful more interesting bets
- The fight is under 3 rounds: +650
- 3 rounds or more: -1400
- Jake Paul will win in 60 seconds: +4000
- Anderson Silva to win in 60 seconds: +3300
The undercard has some truly interesting (and decent) matchups
The highlight of the undercard for sports fans (maybe not so much boxing fans) is Le’Veon Bell fighting Uriah Hall (Hall is a -480 favorite). Bell beat Adrian Peterson in his debut boxing match in December. Hall TKOd Silva in a UFC fight in 2020. Bell is training with Manny Pacquiao’s former trainer:
In other fights:
- Ashton Sylve takes on Braulio Rodriguez
- Doctor Mike Varshavski (People’s “Sexiest Doctor Alive”) vs. Chris Avila
- Antonio Nieves vs. Alexandro Santiago
- Danny Barrios vs. Edgar Ortiz Jr
- Adrian Rodriguez vs. Dominique Griffin
In other boxing news
- Katie Taylor will fight Karen Elizabeth Carabajal at the OVO Arena Wembley earlier in the day on DAZN UPDATE: Taylor won in a decision
- The next big fight is Nov. 5, when Dmitry Bivol fights Gilberto Ramirez
- Terence Crawford fights David Avanesyan in December
- Tyson Fury is coming back Dec. 3 to fight Derek Chisora (although he’s see-sawed many times)
- Paul might be fighting Tommy Fury in February… but who knows
(Top photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images; in-line pic of Jake Paul: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
