{"id":35028,"date":"2025-07-31T13:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35028\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:32:09","slug":"ufc-legend-blasts-jake-paul-for-not-being-a-real-fighter-believes-mma-is-the-real-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35028\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC legend blasts Jake Paul for not being a \u2018real fighter\u2019, believes MMA is the real test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This UFC legend didn\u2019t hold back on Jake Paul being marketed as a fighter.<\/p>\n

After beating former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr<\/a>, the former Disney star has gained slightly more respect in the combat sports world, but not enough for industry-wide recognition.<\/p>\n

His run-ins with MMA stars inside and outside the ring are well documented, but some fighters, such as Rampage Jackson, who used to hate Paul<\/a>, have changed their minds.<\/p>\n

\"JakePhoto by Al Bello\/Getty Images for Netflix \u00a9 2024<\/p>\n

Questions have been raised over the quality of opponents and their willingness to compete with Tito Ortiz suggesting Mike Tyson pulled punches<\/a> in his bout with the Ohio boxer last year.<\/p>\n

UFC legend Vitor Belfort rebukes the claim that Jake Paul is a \u2018real fighter\u2019, says MMA finds that out<\/p>\n

However, former three-division UFC<\/a> fighter Vitor Belfort was not shy when it came to his opinions on content creators involving themselves in combat sports.<\/p>\n

In an interview with MMA Fighting, the Brazilian did not hold back, especially on the \u2018Problem Child\u2019s\u2019 involvement.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cJake Paul is a fighter? I say \u2018what\u2019, I understand that he is now, he created a whole different element, he is not a real fighter. I have respect for what he did, but he is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe picked his opponents and he curates his career, but people think this is real boxing but it is not.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now we live in this world we call virtual reality, it\u2019s not a reality, but MMA is a reality. If you sign with UFC, you are not going to be a champion because you have followers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belfort did not just pick on the 27-year-old novice; he went further in his criticisms of stars with huge followings and explained why MMA differentiates the pretenders from the real athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are going to have to fight. Look at Conor McGregor\u2019s six last losses, six defeats. He\u2019s great, he draws the crowd but he cannot win for six fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it shows (MMA) doesn\u2019t care you can have all the likes you want, but you are not going to win if you don\u2019t put the work in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitor Belfort once stopped a former undisputed cruiserweight legend in an exhibition fight<\/p>\n

Interestingly, \u2018The Phenom\u2019 has tried his hand in the boxing ring similar to the Ohio boxer but against a Hall of Fame fighter.<\/p>\n

Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield came out of retirement to compete in an exhibition against the then 44-year-old retired star.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Odd not only for the two fighters being paired but also for the addition of American President Donald Trump on the commentary desk.<\/p>\n

A 58-year-old Holyfield was not fight-ready, as he was stopped in the first round after being knocked down inside the opening two minutes by a flurry of uppercuts and straight shots.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the 90s icon did not compete in another exhibition bout after this and did not even consider a professional return over three-minute rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This UFC legend didn\u2019t hold back on Jake Paul being marketed as a fighter. After beating former world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,9225,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-35028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-jake-paul","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}