Jake Paul's first opponent launches surprise defense of former rival after Mike Tyson fight… 'I felt sorry for Mike'
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YouTube boxer AnEsonGib has emerged as a surprising ally to Jake Paul amid criticism over his big win last year.
The social media stars fought each other in their professional boxing debuts in 2020, with Paul winning by TKO in the first round. Since then, they have gone on to have successful fight careers of their own, with ‘Gib’ now set to compete in the main event of a Misfits Boxing super card in Qatar.
Last week in Dallas, Paul had the biggest night of his career to date when he faced legendary former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson live on Netflix. And despite widespread criticism, his old rival was impressed with some aspects of the show.
AnEsonGib was impressed with Netflix presentation for Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson
One key aspect of influencer boxing that has always captured the imagination of AnEsonGib, whose real name is Ali Al-Fakkri, is the storytelling. He is famed for his ability to build a narrative heading into a fight, arguably most famously when he fought Paul in 2020.
And while he admits that the fight itself wasn’t a great spectacle, he did have some good things to say about last week’s big Netflix show. Speaking exclusively with Bloody Elbow ahead of his fight with Slim Albaher, he explained: “It was a great exhibition.
“It was a good platform to be on [with Netflix], no one got seriously hurt but yeah you felt sorry for Mike a few times. He didn’t look sharp or good… Mike didn’t get hit too hard, right? From the clips that I saw it didn’t look too bad.
“I like his journey so far, he’s done good. I’m not sure where he’s going to go now from this, but I’m sure him and his team are going to make a perfect plan. The event was successful so I’m sure they have a plan.”
AnEsonGib reflects on Jake Paul fight five years on
Back in 2020, ‘Gib’ managed to talk his way into a showdown with Paul in Miami that came despite almost every metric going against him. The American, despite drawing fewer viewers on YouTube at the time, was a much bigger name and also required his rival to move up to cruiserweight.
However, the Saudi Arabian-born Brit moved forward and never stopped pressing Paul, ultimately losing to the three knockdown rule in their Super Bowl week bout. Since that loss, he has become the only one of Paul’s victims to continue fighting, not losing once since their showdown.
“I remember that I was in YouTuber mode,” he explained. “I was making loads of videos trying to promote the fight and I was doing a good job. So once I lost I was like ‘s***, I didn’t take boxing as serious as I should’.
“When it got announced there was four week of camp and I trained hard then but I wasn’t training as hard as I should during the off-season. So I dedicated my time into the amateur gyms and what a redemption story I’ve had since.
“I’ve been taking down promotions, Social Gloves, Kingpyn, so I’ve liked my story; from the highs to the lows, they’ve all meant something.”
