TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul stopped former UFC fighter Mike Perry at 1:12 of the sixth round of a cruiserweight fight on Sunday to improve his record to 10-1 with seven knockouts.
Perry, who has a 6-1 record in bare-knuckle fighting, was making his professional boxing debut.
Paul knocked Perry down in each of the first two rounds and nearly stopped him with a flurry of punches in the fourth round. He sent Perry to the canvas a third time in the sixth round with an overhand right and left hook. Perry got back to his feet before the 10 count, but he was not steady on his feet and the referee waved the fight off.
“I truly believed I would put him out in the first round, but man he is tough,” Paul said. “I’m a perfectionist, but I wasn’t perfect because he hit me like five times, so I’m going to have to go to the drawing board, so I don’t get hit at all. Respect to Mike Perry. He was the king of violence, I’m the new king of violence.”
Perry said that Paul cracked his rib with a right hook to the body in the first round.
“He just kept coming, and I made a couple of mistakes,” Perry said. “He was a little too sharp and a little too fast for me.”
The 27-year-old Paul was originally scheduled to face former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, but the fight was postponed after Tyson, 57, had a stomach ulcer flareup in May that forced him to stop training. That fight has been rescheduled for Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“If Tyson wants to get in the ring, I’m down and he does,” Paul said. “So here we are. He’s one of the baddest men on the planet. I’m ready for it, I’m excited for it. He’s a beast.”
The card also featured Amanda Serrano, the unified women’s featherweight champion, who improved to 47-2-1 with a second-round TKO over Stevie Morgan (14-2-1) in a super lightweight bout.
She will face super lightweight champion Katie Taylor (23-1) on the Nov. 15 card in a rematch of their 2022 fight that Taylor won by split decision.
Also, on the undercard former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (54-6-1) beat former UFC fighter Uriah Hall (1-1) by unanimous decision in his first fight since December 18. 2021.
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