A heavyweight contender has spoken out after the Jake Paul vs Gervonta Davis fight announcement.
Paul’s next fight has been an interesting saga since he beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and called out Anthony Joshua for a bout following his win in June.
The rumoured clash was considered a ‘dangerous’ fight by Joshua’s trainer and other professionals, as it was likely to be contested under a professional ruleset.
Now, the contest is on the back burner, with ‘El Gallo’ opting to fight the current WBA 135lb champion, Davis, in an exhibition match on November 14th on Netflix.
Jake Paul vs Gervonta Davis is a ‘farce’, and the heavyweight contender is unsure why Davis is ‘wasting his prime’
News of the fight spread when a Turkish Netflix account on X quickly deleted a post announcing the fight, which was later confirmed by ‘The Problem Child’ and the streaming service.
Before the official confirmation, British heavyweight contender Dave Allen took to his YouTube channel to react to the potential contest for the WBA top 15 cruiserweight contender.
During the video, he questioned why ‘Tank’ was taking the exhibition while still in his prime years as a professional.
Allen said: “Gervonta Davis is a lightweight, so by all means if they make a few quid and nobody gets hurt, then great, but I certainly wouldn’t be paying a penny to watch it. I think it’s just absolutely ridiculous, farcical.
“Who wants to watch an exhibition? Gervonta Davis is in his prime years. Why is he wasting his time? Why isn’t he having a rematch with the fella (Lamont Roach) he got a draw with?
“Why is he not going up a weight and fighting (Teofimo) Lopez and (Ryan) Garcia and those fighters? Why is he fighting Jake Paul in an exhibition? I get the money’s great, but he’s in the prime years.”
The 30-year-old champion fought Lamont Roach in March this year, a contest which resulted in a majority draw, after controversy surrounding the Baltimore fighter taking a knee during a round that was not ruled a knockdown.
But he remained undefeated with his record still standing at 30 wins and 28 knockouts.
‘The White Rhino’ hoped the fight would not happen, and instead, he wanted the 28-year-old cruiserweight to fight anyone else.
“Hopefully, Jake Paul fights a cruiserweight, you know, in the 20s, and the 30s, a decent one. I don’t want to see him get hurt. I don’t want to see him fight Anthony Joshua. I don’t want to see him get hurt at all,” he said.
“But I’d like to see him take it seriously and see how good he can be. Probably could be quite decent, but he’s got all the facilities, all the training, all the rest of it.
“He could probably do alright. So, I’ve got nothing against him. It just annoys me that he does all his exhibitions and fights all these past guys.”
The weight difference between Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis is almost double that of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Logan Paul
Jake is not the first Paul brother to take part in an exhibition matchup, as his older brother, Logan Paul, once took on Floyd Mayweather Jr in an eight-round contest scored by WBC judges.
Their respective catchweights of Floyd’s 155 lbs and Logan’s 189 lbs showed a 34 lb difference between the pair.
While the weights have not yet been revealed for this fight, Davis is a natural 135 lb fighter who has only been as high as 140lbs.
To put that into perspective, Jake Paul fights at 200 lbs, a massive 60 lb difference.
A catchweight will have to be in place for the bout to bridge the divide, and if the fight looks anything like ‘Money May’ versus the ‘Maverick’, it could be a very cagey bout.