3. Jake Paul vs. Vitor Belfort weirdly makes a lot of sense.
Leading into this event, most of the talk seemed to be that Anderson Silva made a lot of sense for Jake Paul, at least if Silva were to come out successful. But in the end, it wasn’t Silva that called out Paul, instead it was his fellow countryman in Vitor Belfort.
Belfort TKO’d Holyfield in a rather sad main event, a one-sided fight that never should have happened. Still, Belfort isn’t to blame here: he did his job. He also turned up the intensity following the bout, cutting a WWE-esque promo in which he and Triller officials offered 30 million for Paul to return to his old stomping grounds to fight Belfort. Honestly, it makes a lot of sense looking at it for a little bit.
Jake Paul doesn’t appear to have much interest in fighting actual boxers, and he generally picks an MMA fighter because it helps draw in that side of the combat sports world. Belfort mostly fits the profile of a fighter that Paul would fight: he’s much older and past his prime, he’s a name, and he doesn’t have much experience boxing. Silva? He might just be a little too good for Paul.
The one potential hang-up could be that Belfort appears to be closer to his prime than most Paul opponents (Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley might have been younger than Belfort, but the former was coming off hip surgery, the latter mired in a slump). And he knows how to punch. But a potential 30 million dollar payday could potentially lure the boxing star back to his old promotion, if a deal can be worked out with Showtime at least.
