ESPN’s Ariel Helwani is reporting that an 8-Round boxing match between YouTube star Jake Paul and former Bellator & ONE FC champion, and UFC fighter Ben Askren has been confirmed. The fight will take place on April 17th and will be promoted under the Triller banner, the same company that promoted the Tyson-Jones Jr exhibition bout where Jake Paul knocked out former NBA star Nate Robinson.
Ben Askren retired from MMA in 2019 after suffering back to back losses to Jorge Masvidal and Demian Maia. Askren is a great athlete but is not known for his striking, as he is a former college wrestler from Missouri. Paul, while being more famous as an obnoxious YouTube kid along with his brother, actually does have some boxing talent and has been training for a few years.
Mike’s Take: Ill watch but I’m not proud of it. I do think that a lot of people are going to favor Askren in this one, but he has a bad hip and has been out of competition for a couple years and suffered a massive KO from Masvidal, I not only think Paul has a shot here, I’m actually gonna pick him, and I hate myself for it.
