Yesterday going into the "fight" I was one of the people that was very surprised to see that the Vegas gambling lines actually were in favor of Jake Paul defeating Ben Askren. Had it not been for a lack of time on my part I would have placed a bet against it.
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Jake Paul is a jackass for the most part and I have never been a fan of him or his brother Logan in any of their online adventures and also never understood why anyone would ever feel any other way. What they did was stupid in my mind and it kind of reflected the "dumbification" of the global population that both of these guys were famous, making millions, and doing so just by doing stupid stuff on the internet: That being said, I was a huge fan of Jackass in the 90's so perhaps I am being a bit of a hypocrite.
The overall fight card yesterday was a bit of a joke and didn't really even seem like a boxing event. It was more of a Justin Beiber concert that had some fights at it. The commentators for the most part don't even have a background in sports at all (Snoop Dogg is one of them) and the theatrics seem to be more of a focus than the actual fights.
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The fights were boring and the Triller trend seems to be to get guys who are not boxers per se and put them in the boxing ring. This has happened before and has failed miserably. Why it is working now probably has a lot to do with Covid and the fact that people will watch anything if it is hyped up enough.
Which brings us to the main event. Jake Paul and Ben Askren have been exchanging mean statements with one another for months and Askren, in my mind, seemed the obvious person to go with in this fight seeing as how he is a former MMA and wrestling champion. He has a ton of experience and one would assume that he has a hell of a chin and can take a punch - This assumption was terribly wrong on mine, and many other people's parts.
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For one thing, going into the fight, Askren didn't appear as though he had even been training. He had a gut, he lacked muscle definition and it makes me think that he, like almost everyone else, hasn't been taking Jake Paul seriously but then again, why would you? Until this week he hasn't fought anyone that really had any fighting experience and in his previous 2 fights there weren't really any "highlights" to show because he and his opponents looked sloppy.
There is no arguing that Paul can box after this one though.
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In a mere 40 seconds Jake Paul knocked down the fat, out of shape-looking Ben Askren and even though he made the standing 8 count the referee called off the fight and if you saw it, there is no controversy there, Askren was done.
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Personally, I would have liked to have left the fight go a bit longer as Askren pleaded with the ref to allow it to carry on because maybe Askren was taking it easy because even after trading blows with Paul, perhaps he wasn't taking the fight seriously and would have turned it on a bit from that point forward. But it wasn't going to happen and Askren quickly and uncerimoniously left the ring as Paul rightfully celebrated.
Now comes the controversy: There is some speculation out there that Askren was paid to take the fall in order to further the fame and credibility of both Jake Paul and the Triller promotion in general. It is not beyond the realm of possibility but it is all mere speculation. If Askren had embarassed Paul, the gravy train would be over but now Paul will more than likely call out other fighters and since there is a lot of attention on Triller now these events are going to become even more lucrative.
I don't know nor do I care if this is true - the boxing world has been known to be a bit dirty in the past, but there is no denying that Jake Paul actually does know how to box. I suppose what we have to look forward to now is if his next opponent will be an actual boxer or if he is going to call out more and more MMA fighters.
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This isn't even how a boxer is supposed to defend themselves
This is embarassing for the MMA world for sure because there was a time that Askren was considered to be one of the bright hope up-and-comers and was actually part of a very lucrative deal made between Bellator and UFC. He was a good MMA fighter but I think the world has just had it proven to them that MMA is not boxing.
I think Askren should probably go into hiding and simply try his best to not waste the $500,000 that he was paid for 40 seconds of his time. Nobody is going to book him in the future unless he can somehow convince Triller to give him a rematch a few years from now.