Paul outlines championship goal while 65-year-old actor proposes exhibition
Jake Paul is recovering from a double broken jaw and outlining a cruiserweight title run. Jean-Claude Van Damme, 65, is asking for a fight instead.
Paul has not fought since Anthony Joshua flattened him at heavyweight and left him with a double broken jaw. He jumped divisions, gave away size, and got caught with a clean shot he never saw. That is what happens when a cruiserweight trades at heavyweight without a margin for error.
Now the talk is back at 200 pounds.
Van Damme stepped in publicly.
“Hi Jake, this is JCVD, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bloodsport. Let’s do a fight, a real fight, of course.”
“I promise you, I will not kick below the belt, which means no low kick, so I don’t break your knee, I don’t break your ankle.”
“You’ve done a good fight with ‘AJ’, people make fun, but you were very courageous.”
“You choose the place and I’ll give 15% of my profit to charity. You can do the same, if not, your decision.”
From a boxing standpoint, this is an exhibition conversation. Van Damme is 65. The legs go first. Then the timing. You can hit pads all day, but when a younger man starts doubling the jab and stepping around your lead foot, you feel it. Paul, flawed as he is, has been living in camp. He has been sparring active fighters, working on keeping the right hand tighter, trying to start with the jab instead of loading up.
He still squares up after combinations. He still admires his work. At cruiserweight, that gets you clipped. Against a 65 year old, it likely does not.
There is no eliminator here. No ranking points. No sanctioning body angle. This does nothing for a cruiserweight title path. It is spectacle, not progression.
Paul has already laid out his direction.
“I’m going to come back and fight people my weight and go for the cruiserweight world championship at some point. I’m going to take a little break. I’ve been going hard for six years, so I’m going to take some time off.”
If he is serious about a strap at 200, he needs a ten round fight with a ranked cruiserweight who can work behind the jab, reset his feet, and push him past round six. He needs someone who will make him fight every minute, not pose.
He boxed a 59 year old Mike Tyson. That sold. It did not move him up any rankings.
The next contract tells you everything. Cruiserweight contender, or another name from outside the rankings.