Coach says Jake Paul will ‘pay dearly’ if he boxes Anderson Silva: ‘He never fought a striker’

Anderson Silva and Floyd Mayweather competed in boxing exhibitions this past weekend in Abu Dhabi, schooling Don Moore and Bruno Machado in the squared circle, respectively. YouTube star-turned-boxer Jake Paul didn’t seem all that impressed, tweeting he would beat both “in the same night.”

Silva’s longtime boxing coach Luiz Carlos Dorea, who cornered Silva in many UFC bouts during his middleweight championship reign and trained him for recent wins over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tito Ortiz in boxing, literally laughed at Paul for his comments.

“You have to laugh, right? Have to laugh,” Dorea told MMA Fighting. “Jake Paul is doing his part, which is to promote. It’s obvious there’s no way he can face Mayweather, one of the best boxers of all time, and Anderson, another legend. He never fought a striker.”

Paul is 5-0 in boxing with wins over Tyron Woodley (twice) and Ben Askren, plus former NBA player Nate Robinson and fellow YouTuber Ali Enson Gib. Paul has teased on social media he’s returning to the ring Aug. 13 against a yet-to-be-revealed opponent, and Dorea said Silva “never stops training” and could meet him “depending on the negotiation.”

“He has to think of an exhibition,” Dorea said of Paul potentially facing the former UFC middleweight king. “If he’s considering an [official] fight, I think he will pay dearly. In promoting, it’s all valid. He’s doing his part, using his tongue, but you can’t use your tongue inside the ring. You have to use your fists, and it’s a whole other story. Anderson is far better.”

Silva might not face Paul on Aug. 13, but Dorea said he’s verbally agreed to return to Dubai for a boxing match on Oct. 15, after the Global Titans event was moved from May 14 to May 21 and shifted to Abu Dhabi following the death of UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on May 13.

It’s yet to be decided if Silva will compete in another exhibition or in an official boxing bout in October, Dorea said.

“Anderson has always trained boxing when he was fighting MMA,” Dorea said of his evolution. “He was always a striker with good boxing and muay Thai. Now, almost two years later and the three [boxing matches] we’ve done, and training boxing specifically for this, Anderson is evolving a lot. He’s more confident in his movement and defense. He had great boxing for MMA, and is putting on a show now. His level is so high.”