Ok, things are getting a bit strange with the Jake Paul side of things. I have never really liked the guy because I believe that he and his brother have made a mockery out of professional fighting sports and in the meantime they made themselves very very wealthy by doing so. I felt as though Jake Paul's fights were kind of rigged in his favor for a long time and until he fought Fury, I don't feel as though any of his challengers were selected because they could actually have a chance at winning.
He chose famous UFC names and then told them they had to play by boxing rules. No kicks, no elbows, no takedowns, big ol' pillow gloves, then everyone is so surprised when he wins when the only fighting sport he participates in is straight boxing. That was until he lost, albeit by decision to Tommy Fury who is a guy whose name we only know because of his much more famous relative.
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Now in his latest challenge towards Sean Strickland I am actually on Jake Paul's side on this one. Jake only even started to pay attention to Strickland because of some footage that went viral of Sean sparring with someone that has almost no fight experience and not holding back at all on him.
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I don't really know who Sneako is but apparently he is some sort of controversial streamer that makes a bunch of money doing that, likely a lot more money than Sean Strickland makes. The fact remains that one of the two people in the octagon is an ex MMA world champion, and the other guy is someone who is a fan of the sport that maybe has taken a few boxing classes at the YMCA. It was supposed to be for fun or maybe some promotional material for both guys but Strickland treated it as if it was a real fight. Strickland brutalized the kid and even ignored towels being thrown in and few a couple more after the ref got involved. This was not a sanctioned event so Sean cannot be penalized for this but come on man... the other guy in there is not experienced.
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Sneako got all messed up from this and afterwards Sean raised his hand in admiration of him "taking it" but that doesn't change the fact that he should have held back a bit, pulled some punches and all that. I have 3 professional MMA fights under my belt from 20 years ago, when we would spar, especially if it was with someone that had little to no experience, it is just assumed the better guy is going to hold back a bit. Sean did nothing of the sort and because of this he attracted the attention of Jake Paul.
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To get the attention of Jake Paul is almost certainly going to mean a big payday for you but here's the catch, with a loss meaning you have to get something tattooed on your body, that's pretty damn harsh. I suppose he could always back out and refuse to get the tatt done but then he would look like a real bitch to the entire world.
Jake is offering to foot the bill for the entire thing and well, the suspicious side of me thinks that he isn't really all that interested in vindicating Sneako or even punishing Strickland, but he knows that the PPV buy ins will be far more than the $1 million and win or lose he is going to be taking home a crap ton of money.
Things got dark though when Strickland, rather than just accepting the fight, which he originally did, went on a multi-Tweet rant about how he instead wants to meet Paul in the desert and just kill him... carrying on about how the founding fathers would have wanted Jake Paul murdered and included an image from Bloodsport
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Sean is now attracting a ton of attention for all the wrong reasons and his mental stability is being called into question by both the general public and people in the combat sports industry.
I recently wrote about how I had a lot of respect for Sean losing his title with dignity but it's amazing how quickly that can change once you really get to see what someone is like. I suppose this is one of the many reasons that I am happy that I don't have Twitter and never have. I'm sure we have all thought that something was a good idea to post at one time or another when it turns out it was actually really stupid.
I hope Sean takes the fight in Puerto Rico and I hope Jake gives him the goods. No fakery, no secret contracts, just a real grudge match.