Jake Paul has knocked out Andre August cold in a brutal first round shot that he hopes will go some way to proving the cynics wrong.
In his first fight since losing to Tommy Fury earlier this year, Paul took on a professional boxer for just the second time, although 35-year-old journeyman August wasn’t exactly an intimidating opponent with a 10-1 record.
Fighting in Orlando, Florida on Saturday (AEDT), Paul was clearly the more active boxer in the early stages, peppering August with body shots and looking a class above.
August hit Paul in the head with a overhand right hook, but moments later the YouTuber unleashed a savage right uppercut that sent August crashing to the canvas.
The blow knocked him out cold and the referee stopped the eight-round cruiserweight fight there and then.
In an ice cold celebration, Paul waved goodbye to August while he lay dazed on the canvas.
The DAZN commentator exclaimed: “The Problem Child Strikes again! One punch is all it takes for Jake Paul.”
Boxing and MMA pundit Ariel Helwani said: “When I walked into Andre’s locker room, he looked terrified. That man was done, was a dead man walking. Jake capitalised and got the first round knockout.
“The uppercut got it done. His eyes rolled to the back of head. Lights out.”
Logan Paul, who beat Dillon Danis in farcical scenes in October, jumped into the ring to celebrate with his brother.
It was an emphatic performance by the 28-year-old, who has been criticised for not fighting professional boxers to pad out his record.
In a sign of the boxing world’s waning interest in Paul as a fighter, this bout was not a pay-per-view event on DAZN.
But with one uppercut, Jake Paul may have gone some way to proving his doubters wrong. There will be calls for him to fight an opponent of a much higher calibre next time he steps in the ring.
Paul’s best performance since beating UFC legend Nate Diaz takes his professional boxing record to 8-1, 5KOs.
“I said first round knockout all week,” Paul said after the knockout win.
“I manifested this. I said I need to bring the old Problem Child back. I’ve been too nice to these people letting them go into the later rounds. I set up my shot and he went night night”.
Paul did a shooshing motion to the camera, which he said was a message that he was “silencing the critics”.
“Everyone who has something to say about me. ‘Oh he can’t do this. He can’t sell. He’s not big. What is he doing fighting this guy, fighting that guy’. Shut the f*** up.”
“I don’t know what I proved tonight. I’m just going to do me. This is all part of the process, the next step to world champion.
“Clearly these guys can’t hang with me. He didn’t even last two minutes and he’s been doing this his entire life. What’s next? It’s going to be even bigger.”
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