Jake Paul showed no mercy to Andre August, as he knocked him out cold with a single punch in the first round of their cruiserweight showdown in Orlando on Friday night. Paul, who had suffered a controversial split decision loss to Tommy Fury in his last fight, bounced back with a stunning display of power and precision, as he finished off the former professional boxer, who had a respectable 10-1-1 record before facing Paul.
Paul, who weighed in at 199 pounds, used his height and reach advantage to control the distance and land some crisp jabs and body shots, while August, who weighed in at 197 pounds, struggled to find his range and timing. August managed to land a looping right hook that grazed Paul’s head, but it only seemed to anger Paul, who retaliated with a vicious right uppercut that caught August flush on the chin. August collapsed to the floor like a ragdoll, and the referee immediately stopped the fight at 2:43 of the first round, giving Paul his eighth win and fifth knockout in nine fights.
Paul, who celebrated his 27th birthday on the day of the fight, was ruthless in his celebration, as he waved goodbye to August while he lay motionless on the canvas. The DAZN commentator shouted: “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 capitalized and got the first round knockout.
“The uppercut got it done. His eyes rolled to the back of his head. Lights out.” Logan Paul, who had beaten Dillon Danis in a chaotic brawl in October, jumped into the ring to celebrate with his brother.
It was an impressive performance by the 28-year-old, who has been criticized 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 caliber 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.”
