Jake Paul Pummels Hapless Mike Perry En Route to Sixth-Round TKO

Jake Paul (10-1, 7 KOs) should’ve been facing Mike Tyson on Netflix, competing in the most watched combat sports event of all time. Instead, the 58-year-old Tyson had an old man stomach issue that forced the bout to be pushed back to November.

Paul, the YouTuber/Influencer/Novice boxer, would keep the July 20 date, though, beating on former UFC mid-carder and bare-knuckles boxer Mike Perry (0-2) at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on a DAZN pay-per-view show with, reportedly, over 17,000 in attendance.

It would’ve only taken a brief glimpse of Perry’s boxing skills to realize that he had almost no chance of beating even a marginally skilled Paul. And everything played out true to form as a flat-footed, heavy-legged, crude, and defense-averse Perry plodded forward and ate punches en route to sixth-round TKO loss.

Along the way, Paul would drop the tough, but clueless Perry in the first, second, and sixth rounds. The last knockdown resulted in referee Chris Young stopping the contest as Perry stumbled sideways after beating the count.

Despite a couple of very brief moments of success from the underdog earlier in the fight, the 27-year-old Paul was just too good, too skilled, and too big (he looked at least two divisions larger than Perry) for the 32-year-old 5-0 bare-knuckles boxer.

The one-sided drubbing was not at all unexpected. Even as the DAZN commentating crew tried to build Perry up as a challenge throughout the telecast, the reality of the situation was crystal clear once the boxing match actually began. Described as “unique” and “authentic” by the DAZN talking heads, they couldn’t use the words “good” or even “competent” when it came to Perry or his boxing ability.

So, the Jake Paul show goes on as he continues to make big money and big events that piss off boxing purists. In an eleven-fight pro career, Paul has now faced a YouTuber, a retired NBA star, six former MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized boxing fall guys. The 58-year-old Mike Tyson– even 19 years after having retired and, maybe, 24-25 years past his post-prime from– would represent the toughest opponent of Paul’s career, by far (if the fight in November goes through).

In the meantime, Paul continues his routine, setting up future dates against future non-boxer foes eager for a boxing payday.

“Alex Pereira, you say you want to box,” Paul addressed the UFC light heavyweight champ during his post-fight interview Saturday night. “I’m the king of this.”

But “this” is clearly something different than main stage, elite-level boxing.