Artur Beterbiev calls out Jake Paul... No, really!

Jake Paul’s prominence in the sport of boxing reaches new found levels of absurdity

If you woke up to see the latest tweet from Light Heavyweight undisputed champion, pound-for-pound star and future Hall of Famer Artur Beterbiev, you may well believe your slumber had drifted into a false awakening.

‘After four years it’s time to have serious challenges. Didn’t notice your acceptance or rejection. So what are we gonna do?’ read the twitter outburst from the exceptional, devastating Russian.

His target? A rematch with Dmitrii Bivol? A move up to Cruiserweight to challenge the fantastic southpaw, Jai Opetaia? Unfortunately not. This tweet was directed at the polarising, YouTuber-turned-boxer, and apparently future world title challenger, Jake Paul.

This is not the first time we have seen world level fighters call out ‘The Problem Child’s’ name. Back in 2022, then world cruiserweight champion and legendary Latvian Mairis Breidis called out the multimillionaire celebrity in the form of a bizarre diss-track, much to the outrage of the hardcore boxing fraternity.

The reason for world level fighters giving attention to such a ludicrous fight proposal is obvious. Last Saturday night, November 16th, ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson came out of retirement, well kind of, at the age of 58 and some 19 years after suffering his second successive defeat to the mediocre Irish bruiser Kevin McBride.

Tyson was spent then, and what we witnessed on Saturday was painful to watch for everybody involved. Tyson was an old man in there, with legs that could barely step forwards, let alone spring into action with a punch, and an engine which could see him muster no more than a handful of wild swings per round. The headline, despite the embarrassing spectacle that ensued between the ropes, was the viewership figures and earnings, with Tyson likely seeing has bank account go up by some $20m dollars when all is said and done.

In light of this, you can see how other former world champions, or perhaps retired fighters would want a piece of the action, not only to get a career-high pay day, but also gain vengeance for the shameful reality that a fighter of Jake Paul’s calibre has Mike Tyson’s name as a scalp on his record, even if no boxing fan will ever recognise its legitimacy.

But how we have reached a point where one of the greatest fighters active in our sport, Artur Beterbiev, is calling out his name is just as absurd. Obviously, the payday he would earn, with what would clearly be a one-round demolition job must be attractive, but given the multimillion pound pay day he would have just earnt for the Bivol undisputed superfight, and could earn again, whomever he chooses to fight next, is it really worth tainting the reputation of our beloved sport?

Jake Paul is a sensational businessman and marketeer, with a 70 million fan-following, and you have to admire how he has conned his younger fanbase, whom were not previously boxing fans, into thinking he is a genuine world level contender with a string of victories, some more respectable than others, over athletes, retired MMA stars and club level boxers.

But we really must stop giving weight to his ascent by the likes of Artur Beterbiev mentioning his name. Jake Paul will continue to fight, and sooner or later that competition will step up to a point where he cannot compete. Perhaps the winner of Misfits announced fight between Tommy Fury and MMA star Darren Till could be the one to inflict another defeat. If he managed to defeat either of those and we got really desperate, perhaps Tony Bellew or Carl Froch could come out of retirement for one last easy nights work.

Artur Beterbiev however? I think we can all agree he has bigger fish to fry. Let’s just pretend that tweet never happened.