Former world champion Johnny Nelson was urged to call out Jake Paul this week by his daughter, convinced her dad could do a better job than Mike Tyson managed against the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
Paul eased to a comfortable points victory over Tyson in Dallas, Texas, on Friday night with the former heavyweight champion looking every one of his 58 years as he laboured in the ring against a much younger man.
Paul, 27, has been called out by two boxers at the very top of their game this week since the victory.
Undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev challenged the American on social media shortly after the fight, with Paul also revealing a DM from heavyweight world champion Daniel Dubois inviting him into the ring.
Tony Bellew made the trip out to Dallas to gatecrash a press conference last Wednesday having offered to put Paul ‘to sleep’. Another retired British star Carl Froch has been embroiled in a war of words with ‘The Problem Child’ with Nelson believing both former world champions are ‘jumping on the gravy train’.
Nelson has been happily retired from boxing since 2005, still holding the record for the longest reign as cruiserweight champion.
While the Sheffield fighter, now a chief boxing pundit for Sky Sports, would still back himself going up against Paul, he joked he is ‘probably not a big enough name’ for the self-proclaimed ‘future of boxing’.
Nelson told Metro: ‘My daughter rang me up after the Tyson fight and said, “Dad have you seen that? Tyson is only a few months older than you. You could do better than that! Why don’t you start shouting Jake Paul’s name out?’”
‘I started laughing. I’m probably not a big enough name for Jake Paul. And it would never happen in a million years anyway. its embarrassing doing that sort of stuff. If asked if I thought I would beat Jake Paul, of course I would beat Jake Paul.
‘But if I call him out though. it looks desperate and begging to get on that gravy train. And I’m not. That’s how it is.
‘The problem and difference is, if you go in there thinking, “I’m going to go in there and get knocked out for £20million”, then shame on you. If I was going in there knowing I was going to get knocked out I wouldn’t do it. Money is not my God. I’d go in there if I knew I could do it. And so would Carl [Froch], Tony [Bellew] and Dubois. Jake Paul is no idiot either.
‘Everyone is jumping on the gravy train. You had Tony Bellew there at the weekend. You have had Carl Froch there calling him out since. You are going to have a many people thinking, “Jesus Christ, this is mad money for boxing a kid who is just domestic level”.
‘Dubois has jumped on the same gravy train hoping Paul is delusional enough to think he’ll have a go at you. Everyone is trying to jump on the gravy train and I get it.’
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