Key Takeaways
- Ryan Garcia has put Jake Paul at the top of his boxing wishlist for 2025.
- Serving a one-year suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, Garcia says he’d aim for a knockout victory.
After Jake Paul’s unanimous decision win over Mike Tyson earlier this month on Netflix, speculation about his next opponent has started to heat up, and one potential challenger, Ryan Garcia, renewed his callout of Paul on November 26. The highly anticipated fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was marred by several issues, both with the event’s host and the undercard matches. Netflix faced multiple technical difficulties during the Paul vs. Tyson fight, causing many viewers to experience outages and poor video quality while trying to watch the bout. Jake Paul entered the matchup with Tyson sporting a 10-1 professional record, with his sole defeat coming at the hands of British boxer Tommy Fury.
Despite serving a one-year suspension for testing positive for a banned substance before his April bout with Devin Haney, and being ineligible to box professionally in New York until April 20, 2025, Garcia remains undeterred. He’s made it clear that if he gets the chance to face Paul, his goal is nothing short of a knockout victory. With a potential challenge from the 2021 World Boxing Council interim lightweight title champ on the horizon, Jake Paul’s boxing career may be heading in a major new direction.
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Ryan Garcia, who is a controversial figure in the sport, and Jake Paul, who got his start as a social media sensation on YouTube, have shared a friendly rapport over the years, but recent weeks have seen a shift in their dynamic. Now, Garcia has made it clear that Paul is at the top of his wish list for his first fight in 2025. “It would be huge,” Garcia said during his Tuesday appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I see it everywhere. Everywhere I go, people are asking me to fight Jake Paul. I’ve got to give the people what they want, that’s what I’m used to doing.”
Ryan Garcia Is Serious About Jake Paul Callout
If a Garcia-Paul fight were to materialize, one of the most intriguing factors would be the weight class. Garcia, who typically weighs between 165 and 170 pounds, has stated he’s open to facing Jake Paul at a significant weight disadvantage, agreeing to fight at 185 pounds. “We said we would run it one day. He came to my gym a long time ago in Victorville, then he came to visit me with the [Saul] ‘Canelo’ [Alvarez] camp — this is before he boxed. So I kind of gave birth to his boxing career, so I’m here to end it. That’s it.”
Drawing a comparison to the 2021 exhibition between Logan Paul and the much smaller Floyd Mayweather, Garcia emphasized that his skillset would offset Paul’s size advantage, much like Mayweather’s technique balanced the scales in that matchup. “If Jake fights the way he fought with Mike,” Garcia said, “I genuinely believe I would knock him out within four [or] five rounds.”
Garcia’s callout comes after light-heavyweight boxing world champion Artur Beterbiev also offered to fight Jake Paul. The world champion and current holder of the WBC light-heavyweight title, issued a challenge to Jake Paul on his official Instagram, stating that he is “open to any suggestions.”