Boxing
Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren: The retired UFC star knew he would lose, claims Belal Muhammad
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Jake Paul's wipeout of Ben Askren in a sideshow boxing fight last month had many believing the whole thing was staged, including Askren's fellow UFC alumnus Daniel Cormier.
And in a recent interview with Unikrn, current UFC roster member Belal Muhammad says that while the contest was legit, Askren knew he'd be in deep trouble if Paul could indeed box to any degree of ability.
While it's massively debatable whether YouTube star Paul will be able to box at any significant professional level, he has proven to be a country mile above the other crossover novices he has taken on thus far.
Muhammad said of the Paul vs. Askren fight: “It does more harm to boxing than anything, the whole show was a joke.
"Everybody in MMA knows Ben does not box. I’ve trained with Ben and I know that he does not box and he even admitted that if Jake Paul has any type of boxing ability he’s going to lose.
"And just judging by the way Ben showed up at weigh-in, he looked super out of shape, he didn’t care about that fight.
“These guys are YouTubers, they can’t fight real fighters, so they have to keep fighting guys that can’t strike. If you want to keep those paydays coming in you have to keep winning.
“Now you’ve got nerds and trolls online that think these guys are actually real fighters. That’s the only thing that’s annoying about it.
"You’ve got these guys, these little freaking nerds, that think these guys are monsters now.”
That general sense of anger towards the likes of Jake and his brother Logan Paul from legitimate professional fighters was on display this week when retired 50-0 boxing legend Floyd Mayweather appeared in public to promote his upcoming exhibition with Logan, and ended up in a confrontation with Jake which led to the brash celebrity stealing Floyd's baseball cap and running off.
He has since had a new tattoo added to his collection commemorating the stunt.
Muhammad was speaking at an event to launch Unikrn's brand new MMA virtual betting experience. For more information click here.
