Some things need to be seen to be believed and a 10-round exhibition bout between Jake Paul, a cruiserweight, and Gervonta Davis, a lightweight, is one of them.
The exhibition, or spectacle, is set to take place in Miami, Florida on November 14, but before that, on Monday, Davis and Paul met at a press conference, where the world saw for the first time the size difference between the pair and received confirmation of what they already knew: it’s all a bit silly.
We also learned some other key bits of information at Monday’s press conference and understood that for as much as we tried to deny the possibility of its existence the fight – or exhibition – has now moved a step closer to becoming a reality.
1) It means absolutely nothing
This we knew the moment the fight was announced, of course, but Monday’s press conference only hammered home the triviality of it all. It is, like so many these days, a fight as forced as it is shallow and there is nothing between Davis and Paul to make the pre-fight build-up remotely compelling as even a bit of amateur theatre. At the very least it should have been that.
2) It is Jake first, then Tank
If it wasn’t clear beforehand who was running the show, now it is. The man running the show is Jake Paul, whose name came before Davis’ on the press conference backdrop – “JAKE VS. TANK” – and without whom an abomination like this would not be possible. Davis, the WBA lightweight champion, has no real power in this situation, nor does he have anything like the pull Jake Paul has in this odd corner of the combat sports world. It’s perhaps why Davis is content to play second fiddle and why he genuflects at the feet of a man who is not only bigger in stature and shoe size but whose profile sadly dwarfs Davis’ as well.
3) There will be 10 three-minute rounds
At least with 10 three-minute rounds it will have the smell of a proper boxing match without ever feeling like one. At least in that time – half an hour – there is the possibility of one of the two boxers becoming tired with the charade and keeling over due to either exhaustion or, more likely, embarrassment. Whether that’s Paul or Davis hardly matters in truth. It would just be nice if on a night like November 14 we didn’t have to experience the added indignity of calling on three professional judges and have them pretend like any of it matters.
4) Paul is six inches taller than Davis
The face-off pictures looked every bit as ridiculous as you imagined they would and did nothing to change the consensus view that this fight shouldn’t really be happening. Jake Paul, on social media, captioned one of the pictures with “Bring your kid to work day” and in less than two months he will be trying to fight and knock out that “kid”. Sounds fun.
5) The fight has a 195-pound weight limit
Jake Paul isn’t just bigger than Gervonta Davis, he is a lot bigger. In fact, Paul weighed 227 pounds when he fought Mike Tyson last November and was then just shy of 200 when boxing Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr in June. For this one he has promised to come in lighter, aware that Davis competes at around the 135-pound mark, although it is worth noting that Paul has not been lighter than 195 pounds – the stipulated weight limit for this exhibition – since he fought Nate Diaz in 2023. Davis, meanwhile, believed the weight limit had been set at 190, not 195, and expressed his dismay when he was corrected on Monday.
6) USADA will handle the drug testing
While you always worry when the promoters announce the drug-testing agency for a fight as though it is an undercard bout, in some cases transparency is essential. This is one such case, by all accounts, and therefore the involvement of USADA was announced on Monday like it was all that was needed to show that everything was fine and above board. If only it were that simple.
7) They are both “f****** clowns”
It didn’t take long for Davis and Paul to start going at each other on Monday and for us to in turn realise how difficult this one will be to sell beyond its little and large angle. In Paul, you have a man whose pro wrestling approach is now trite, with all his tricks seemingly played, while in Davis you have someone so bored of the sport that he slurs his words with the lethargy of a man halfway up the stairs on his way to bed. On Monday, Davis went after Paul for his lack of style, telling him, “Anybody who rocks a mohawk is a f****** clown,” to which Paul replied: “Gervonta, you’re the f****** clown, buddy. Any man who puts his hands on a woman is the clown.” By that point two men dressed as clowns had appeared on stage – no, really – which brought the total of clowns on stage to four.
8) Davis is dead inside and bored
Rather than stand his ground, or even stand straight, it was noticeable how during Monday’s face-off Davis made the decision to slump his shoulders and almost cower in the presence of Paul. In doing so Davis made Paul look rather ludicrous by virtue of giving him nothing. It also showed a level of contempt, I felt, both for the man Davis will fight on November 14 and for the sport in which he occasionally competes.
9) Paul continues to get away with it
When Paul looked down at Davis during their face-off, he didn’t just look down on his next opponent, he looked down on the sport of boxing. It certainly gave that impression anyway. There he was standing tall, allowed to get away with acting the fool, while Davis, or boxing, just stood opposite and let it happen, a cuckold in all but name. There was at no stage any resistance or retaliation on his/our part. Instead, he – or we – thought only about the money and the attention Paul could bring and clenched our fists and bit our tongue.
10) A lot of people will watch it
It goes without saying that Paul vs. Davis will be a ratings success. After all, not only does it involve the great Jake Paul, a man who attracts attention like nobody else, but it is also being shown on Netflix, a platform similarly adept at forcing braindead doom-scrollers to watch things with zero artistic merit just to pass the time/distract from daily life. Whether this fight in November does Paul vs. Tyson numbers (104 million) remains to be seen (though it is unlikely), but there’s every chance it surpasses the number (41 million) that watched Terence Crawford dazzle against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 10 days ago. If it does, consider it a win for Jake Paul, not a win for boxing.
