Jake Paul gallops onto AZ stage and into David Benavidez’ neighborhood – Boxing News
By Norm Frauenheim
GLENDALE, Arizona – He rode in on a horse.
Maybe it was a nod to Arizona’s Wild West past. Or maybe it was his way of saying he was the cavalry riding to the rescue to save a battered game from you gallop headfirst into their own demise. Or maybe an elephant wasn’t available.
Whatever it was, Jake Paul, an unconventional boxer, livened up a traditional Wednesday media event with an unconventional entrance for a public workout days before his cruiserweight fight with UFC icon Anderson Silva on Saturday night’s Showtime pay-per-view .
Paul was having fun and a crowd of fans at a pavilion outside the renamed Desert Diamond Arena west of Phoenix were having fun with him.
That’s not to say that Paul didn’t do business, too. He doesn’t just ride horses. He also has some horse sense. If his entry was an acknowledgment of AZ history, his presence at the Glendale arena was also an acknowledgment of the state’s most iconic fighter.
Paul mentioned David Benavidez and told the DAZN Boxing Show that he would love to be his promoter. Why not? After all, he’s in the neighborhood talking, training, and talking in an arena where Benavidez played David Lemieux in his last fight on March 21.
Benavidez grew up a few miles east of the arena formerly known as Gila River. Metro Phoenix is the heartbeat of Benavidez’s burgeoning fandom. You could hear it loud and clear in his three-lap demolition of Lemieux.
“David Benavidez,” said Paul, who promotes Amanda Serrano. “I think he’s big in the boxing world and he’s a superstar, he’s my favorite boxer but he needs that push just like Amanda did to the mainstream.
“The kid needs to be on billboards, he needs to be on podcasts, he needs to work with influencers. He needs help to create content and get big sponsorships to spread his name even more.”
Benavidez already has a promoter/manager in Sampson Lewkowicz. He is also aligned with PBC. But that doesn’t stop Paul, whose opinions are part of the fun. Both are inexhaustible, always part of the show.
Paul’s tireless self-promotion has created a vast virtual universe. Not even Canelo Alvarez can ignore the reported social media number – more than 20 million YouTube subscribers. That’s enough to even add a zero to Canelo’s paycheck.
So far, however, Canelo has ignored or at least eluded Benavidez, who is reportedly close to a deal for a fight Jose Uzcategui in January,
Canelo said after his super middleweight decision over Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight in September that Benavidez’s resume doesn’t meet the requirements.
“What did he do?” Canelo asked angrily.
He’s done more than Paul, at least he has an unbeaten record in boxing terms, including a World Boxing Council title lost twice – first to a positive drug test and then on the scales.
But Paul has an answer. He proposes promoting Benavidez the way he promotes himself.
Let’s put it this way: It would be a wild ride.
