Jake Paul was booed out of the arena despite beating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr as he made his biggest step up to date on Saturday night in Anaheim.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer took on former middleweight champion Chavez in front of a raucous crowd that broke the gate record for boxing events at the Anaheim Center. Paul’s last ring outing was a massive money fight with Mike Tyson, while the ex-champion defeated former UFC star Uriah Hall last summer.
Paul had been insisting in the lead-up that he was fighting in order to gain a world ranking and pursue cruiserweight gold. And he set that up by having Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez defend his belt against Yuniel Dorticos on the undercard.
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Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr result
Despite being a former California resident, the Anaheim crowd were not receptive to Jake Paul or his brother Logan as they made their way into the ring. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr got a rapturous welcome, harkening back to his days as a world champion.
Chavez used to fight as low as middleweight, but didn’t look significantly outsized by Paul who attacked the body in the opening exchanges. Both were tentative when it came to looking for big shots, but it was the YouTuber who took control early throwing the bigger shots and making his rival miss wildly.
In the second round, Paul found his range and managed to impose the size difference that was evident in the fight’s build-up. The Mexican didn’t look like he was even going to commit to a punch through two as the fans began to loudly boo in the arena, and he did land one almost at the end of the second.
The third was more of the same as Chavez struggled to land anything of note, but he did come alive in the fourth when Paul began to put on more pressure. In the fifth he started well and landed a combination to delight the California crowd, but was met with a big shot from the social media star.
At the halfway point, it was arguably still anyone’s fight even though Paul was on top. Chavez looked slow and unwilling to truly engage, save for a few punches out of the clinch and a little combination towards the end of the sixth.
After very little for five and a half rounds, the fight sprung to life at the end of the sixth with both men landing big shots on their rivals. The seventh and eighth were much of a muchness, before a fiery finish to the ninth.
Chavez clearly hurt Paul towards the end of the round, and needed to push for a finish in round ten, which he did to the best of his ability. However, it was too little too late as Paul survived the late onslaught and won the Unanimous Decision with three scorecards reading 99-91, 97-93 and 98-92.
Zurdo Ramirez struggles with Yuniel Dorticos in co-main event
Part of the promotion for tonight’s main event was a promise that Paul might end up going for cruiserweight gold with a win. To help with this marketing effort, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez was given a defence against Yuniel Dorticos.
The two-weight world champion was supposed to handily defeat Dorticos, but it appears the challenger didn’t read the script and put him through his paces for 12 rounds. The judges ended up scoring it fairly wide, which seemed unfair on the underdog’s efforts.
After the fight, the talk was not of Paul but a potential world title unification with Jai Opetaia. The pair hold three of the four belts at 200lb, and have been on a collision course for a long time – with plans hopefully in place for a meeting soon.
Instead, it is likely Paul will pursue a meeting with WBC champion Badou Jack, who is turning 42 this year and is better known as a super-middleweight than a cruiserweight.
