Jake Paul, Ben Askren fight; YouTuber’s boxing career

     On April 17, Jake Paul and Ben Askren fought in Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta Georgia. Paul won in the first round. Askren left the ring with a smile on his face.

     Jake Paul is a YouTuber currently focusing on his boxing career. He has a 3-0 record in his professional career. His first match was against the YouTuber AnEsonGib, ending with a technical knockout (TKO) with the timer at 2:18 in the first round. His second match was against a professional basketball player Nate Robinson. Paul won with a knockout (KO) at 1:24 in the second round.

     Ben Askren is a retired wrestler and mixed martial artist. He was a ONE Welterweight Champion in 2014. Askren had never boxed up until his fight with Paul.

     Paul’s most recent match against Askren ended in a TKO 1:59 into the first round. To see the event live you had to pay fifty dollars. Dana White, the president of the UFC, bet two million dollars that Paul would lose. He now denies he took the bet.

     “I thought that Jake Paul wasn’t gonna win [because] he’s too cocky and talks too much crap, but he knocked Askren out surprisingly,” Sophomore Dahlia Neiser starts. “Askren had taken a break and kinda let himself go so I’m not entirely surprised.”

     “I wasn’t really surprised about Jake winning because he was boxing an MMA fighter instead of a real boxer,”
sophomore Riley Stewart explains. “I don’t really think it was a fair fight.”

     “I think Jake Paul should fight a bit more because Ben Askren really isn’t in his prime anymore,” sophomore Sophia Shull says.

     “I thought it was really funny,” junior Grace Herron says. “Jake is getting involved [in] boxing in order to become relevant again.

     “I wish Jake Paul lost, but I also don’t really care [because] Askren did not seem like he cared either, junior Griffin Hevesy explains.

     “It definitely took me by surprise in the end,” sophomore Haley Ferran says.

     After knocking out Askren, Paul calls out Kamaru Usman, the UFC Welterweight wrestling champion, interrogating him to fight. “I promise it will be your biggest payday,” Paul says.

     Paul is looking to get into another fight after his win against Askren, particularly trying to get Conor McGregor to fight him.

     “I would be so pissed that a YouTuber who started fighting for clout beat me after I was champion,” Neiser says.

     Overall, Paul made over 600,000 dollars from the fight, and Askren made about 500,000 dollars.

     When Askren was knocked out, then got up, smiling, after he lost, this raised flags of suspicion for many students. “That just made me think it was all staged and that it wasn’t a real match,” Stewart says. “There was just something super sketchy about the whole fight.”

     “Something about the fight just didn’t seem right,” sophomore Logan Carter says. “I feel like it was rigged.”

     “The fight was definitely a set up,” Herron explains.

     “Mans definitely just wanted to get paid,” Hevesy says.

     The fight was “pretty boring,” according to Carter. “Definitely didn’t live up to the hype.”

     “It wasn’t as entertaining as I thought it would be,” Neiser says. “It was so short.”