Not sure what he wants to show against jake paul in mma . Why not call out joe next door for the cage ? He could fight ngannou at mma and show off his grappling skills , i would pay to see it .
MMA or boxing fight, does it matter? Is Jake Paul originally an MMA fighter? He's a YouTuber. Fighting him in any martial art tournament means it's a phony fight made for money.
On the other hand this could be **** LL seeking validation for ducking the Vitali rematch and then having sufficient ****ishness to talk **** about him when he became champ. LL was a great boxer, but remains a smarmy ****. Kinda like Andre Ward.
Near 38 yo Lewis retired at the right time. Lewis was clearly on the downslide. It’s not as if Lewis ducked Vitali altogether or that he didn’t actually beat him at any rate. More often than not, there’s a challenger around the corner that can be framed as the “next guy” the Champ should face. Where does that all end if the Champ himself doesn’t make the prudent decision to retire based on absolute context (age, deteriorations, declining motivation etc.)? People lament that too many Champs don’t know when to retire - but when they actually do know, there’s often equal push back on it. Strange.
It does matter, because you are claiming this is about money, whereas it is about starting a secondary athletic career. There is nothing "phony" about it, as it is traditional for a novice to start with low-level competition.
Even modern nutrition cant hold back father time forever. If Usyk keeps fighting opponents in the top 5 then he is going to lose sooner rather than later. Hed have to go on a bum tour in his 40s to stay undefeated. No, hes not going to turn into an old man anytime soon. But hes rapidly approaching middle age. And boxing at the highest level is the domain of young men. The decision is his to make. And none of us know what hes got planned for the rest of his career.
Why Jake Paul? Because it would likely be his biggest pay day and very winable. It's really that simple.
I think we are too used to boxers staying around for too long. And "changing of the guard" has also become a tradition. New generations typically take over by beating the previous eras best. Its also probably why some divisions are more beloved than others, as we see the changing of the guard more often.
It was even more common in the 1 belt era. Most champions would hang on as long as possible. Winning a title, losing a title, winning it back, etc. Until they approached the age of 35 and then they got absolutely thrashed and beatdown by a younger fighter coming up forcing them into retirement or journeyman circuit. And the cycle continued.
Yeah, the old go out on your shield expectations. Crazy that Ali didn’t leave well enough alone after regaining the title from Leon Spinks. Even though so much better prepared, you could see that he wasn’t “right”. For just a few things, both his strength and balance were gone or well deteriorated. On a few occasions, a simple shove from the smaller Spinks send Ali skittering backward - no one came close to doing same to Ali in his prime.