Glendale, AZ – Former UFC middleweight contender turned professional boxer Uriah Hall called for a fight with Jake Paul following his victory over Le’Veon Bell at Paul vs. Silva on Saturday night.
Speaking to Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight press conference Hall spoke on his fight with Bell.
“I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do because he was so good at his job. He was awkward with it, he kept jabbing to the body. Of course from his previous fight I was seeing if he was trying to set something up. I trained that style because we practiced it for so long and I was like man just feeling it….was really weird,” Hall said.
“I had to slow down, adjust, and I had the timing. Everything was just timing. That’s why I waited for so long. But man that kid is tough. I give him so much props (for) stepping in here.”
Hall said he saw Bell in the back following the bout and spoke with him.
“He was in the back and of course, that’s a part of the sport that you guys don’t see that I hope you would some day put a report on it. It sucks when you’re back there alone and everything kind of caves in. I’m sure those negative affirmations are going to come in his head, but it’s all about the journey,” said Hall.
“I told him ‘Just keep your head up and it’s a part of the sport.'”
Prior to the fight Hall had revealed that he struggled with some mental health issues and had fallen into a depression and even thought about suicide for a moment.
“(I learned) To surround myself with the right people and that energy is a real thing. I had to feed off the right energy because everyone was saying ‘What are you going to do, what are you going to do?’ and no one was saying ‘Are you ok?’ No one was saying the right stuff, ‘Do you need something?’. It was just surrounding myself with the right people and of course I stopped talking to most of my friends,” he said.
“Some got it, not all of them got it, it was just paying more attention to me. And even that is scary because then you fall deep in that hole. I had to hand pick these people that I want to hang out with and luckily they played a part in getting me back.”
So now that he’s got his first professional boxing win under his belt the question remains as to what is next for ‘Primetime’.
“I definitely think I can take him (Jake Paul). I mean he has an awkward style, I was watching him. It’s almost like it’s hard to hit him the way he stands a certain way and he throws these awkward punches. I definitely think that I could give him a challenge,” Hall said.
“I’ll come at him. He’ll hit me, but I’ll come at him.”
Watch the entire post-fight press conference with Uriah Hall above.
