Jake Paul said pre-buys for his fight with 47-year-old Anderson Silva were “going crazy” until a story broke about the UFC legend being knocked out twice in sparring
Jake Paul has admitted that fears over Anderson Silva being knocked out in sparring caused pay-per-view sales for their fight to “tank”.
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, 25, picked up his sixth professional win this past weekend by dropping Silva on the way to a points victory over the UFC legend. ‘The Problem Child’ had arguably his best outing yet against his toughest opponent, outboxing Silva over eight rounds with the judges scoring it 77-74, 78-73 and 78-73 in his favour.
The fight was in jeopardy just days before the event as Silva revealed he was “knocked out” twice in sparring during the lead-up, only for the Brazilian to state he misspoke and he was instead “knocked down”. Paul said this halted all pre-buys for the event as the public thought the fight would be cancelled.
“The pre-buys were going crazy,” he said on the Impaulsive podcast. “On Wednesday, when the news came out about Anderson saying he got knocked out [in sparring] or whatever, the fight was in jeopardy and all this press came out, the pre-buys tanked.