Jake Paul has refined his training ahead of fighting Anderson Silva, and he hopes it will be enough to defeat the former UFC champion.
Silva is the closest thing that Paul has come to in terms of facing off against a professional boxer.
While the Brazilian is known for his MMA exploits above all else, he defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last year and has a 3-1 boxing record.
Trainer BJ Flores has been joined by Danny Smith, and Flores thinks he will help improve the YouTuber physically.
“We’ve added somebody very new to the team, Danny Smith,” he explained. “He was my trainer when I was boxing professionally. He’s one of the best trainers that I know. He’s one of my favorite people.
“Smart, intelligent guy who has been around boxing a long time. He’s somebody who taught me a lot about the game. He’s been very good for the strength and conditioning of Jake. He’s made Jake a better athlete as far as getting him stronger and faster. He’s excellent on the mitts. He’s been a great addition to the team.”
Paul explained that there have been improvements in his technique.
He said: “It’s about getting those 10,000 reps in to become a master. And so the technique is continuing to improve. Bringing my hips and my legs into the punches more and more. Even just growing my stamina to throw more punches. It’s been a constant evolution, and my power has increased dramatically, which is scary for Anderson.
“So many things are clicking with it being my third year of being a professional boxer. I’ve improved drastically and exponentially. People are going to see a different fighter in the ring. I think people are going to be shocked. It’s been amazing, and we’ve really caught a stride and a rhythm with the training camp this year.”
There have also been changes to his diet to help adjust his weight.
“Breakfast is just an omelet with just one piece of toast,” he added. “Sometimes, I’ll skip lunch. I’m not really a big lunch person. It makes me tired, and that makes me drop in weight. I’ll usually have a snack, and some fruit and the snack is a high-fiber protein bar. Dinner is chicken or steak with quinoa or quinoa with fish. Not a lot of carbs. So it’s been a really tough diet coming down to 187, but we’re wanting to do it the right way.
“Where I can wake up the morning of the weigh-in and have pasta if I want to. I could get to 175 next week if I wanted to do an MMA-style weight cut. But we cut the weight ahead of time, so I never have to sit in the sauna and steam room, and I’ll actually be the same weight.”
With a late night ahead of him for the fight, he has adjusted his schedule to match the expected timetable.
“Lots of sleep,” he noted. “I usually wake up around 1 p.m. We train a lot at night. We spar at night. We try to mimic fight night. Waking up and doing some kind of workout at night if I’m not sparring at night. That could be mitts, shadow boxing, and then after that, we do abs, and we’ll go for a jog or weight training.
“Then it’s recovery, and I have a stretch therapist. Then I go into a red-light bed. Then I come home, drink protein, and then I go into the ice bath, then hot tub, and back to the ice bath. That usually recharges me right away.”