Jake Paul makes his 2022 debut on Oct. 29 against former UFC champion Anderson Silva. While "The Problem Child" is focused on what should be, on paper, his toughest test to date, that doesn't mean he doesn't have an eye on an old rival.
KSI and Paul have had a long-running feud since the former fought the latter's older brother, Logan, on two occasions. The trash talk has intensified over the years. KSI caught Paul's attention after the Englishman stopped Swarmz and professional boxer, Luis Alcaraz Pineda, on the same fight card. Paul mocked KSI for the caliber of opposition he faced and said you wouldn't ever see him do that.
“He fought two guys in one night. It was the cheesiest, stupidest thing,” Paul said to MMA Fighting. “It was such a waste of everyone’s time and money.
“I have a responsibility to my fans to put on really big fights that are wars with really good matchups, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
A win over Silva, who is regarded as one of the most lethal strikers in combat sports history and also defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June 2021, would lead Paul to bigger and better fights. That would include a fight with his fellow social media influencer turned boxer.“This opens the floodgates to a lot of competition, a lot of callouts, a lot bigger fights,” Paul said. “It’s exciting.
“However, if someone’s talking s—, at the end of the day, and I can step in there and knock them out and make a ton of money like you said, it’s prize fighting, so if KSI wants to volunteer for his own death, I’m not going to be the one to tell him no.”
Despite wanting to settle the score with KSI, Paul has aspirations of becoming a world champion one day.
“My level of opposition will just continue to raise,” Paul said. “That’s what I’ve done throughout my career; in each fight, it gets harder and harder and harder, and I encounter a new test, and that’s what I have to do.
“No one’s going to tune into my fights if I’m fighting someone they think I’m just going to beat. I don’t want to put on fights like that.”