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Luiz Carlos Dorea, the boxing trainer of MMA legend Anderson Silva, believes his fighter would do a job on Jake Paul in a boxing match.
Two weeks ago, Silva saw action in Abu Dhabi, when he outboxed Bruno Machado in an exhibition fight. The bout was the co-featured attraction to Floyd Mayweather’s exhibition with Don Moore.
Paul, a social media star turned boxer, was not impressed by the action in that event – and took to Twitter to issue a statement that he could beat both Silva and Mayweather “in the same night.”
“You have to laugh, right? Have to laugh,” Dorea told MMA Fighting. “Jake Paul is doing his part, which is to promote. It’s obvious there’s no way he can face Mayweather, one of the best boxers of all time, and Anderson, another legend. He never fought a striker.”
Last year, Paul scored two wins over former UFC champion Tyron Woodley. And Silva picked up wins over former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and UFC veteran Tito Ortiz.
Dorea is confident Silva would hand Paul his first defeat as a boxer.
Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) is planning to box again on August 13. No opponent has been set.
“If he’s considering an [official] fight [with Silva], I think he will pay dearly. In promoting, it’s all valid. He’s doing his part, using his tongue, but you can’t use your tongue inside the ring. You have to use your fists, and it’s a whole other story. Anderson is far better,” Dorea said.
“Anderson has always trained boxing when he was fighting MMA. He was always a striker with good boxing and muay Thai. Now, almost two years later and the three [boxing matches] we’ve done, and training boxing specifically for this, Anderson is evolving a lot. He’s more confident in his movement and defense. He had great boxing for MMA, and is putting on a show now. His level is so high.”