Mike Perry has claimed that fighting Jake Paul was ‘weird’, and warned Julio Cesar Chavez Jr of his power ahead of their clash this month.
The BKFC ‘King of Violence’ was thrown in on short notice with Paul after his initially-planned bout with Mike Tyson was forced back until November. Perry was game and took Paul five rounds to figure out in what the social media star would describe as a ‘$60million risk’.
Now, Paul is set to face former world champion Chavez Jr in what is expected to be the toughest test of his career on June 28 in California.
Meanwhile, Perry is currently promoting DBX’s second full event, which takes place at the Hangar Miami on Friday June 14. Tickets are available here and fans can watch live on YouTube here.
Mike Perry outlines Jake Paul’s ‘weird power’ ahead of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr clash
While Jake Paul did put down Mike Perry three times before landing the stoppage victory, the former UFC star insists that it wasn’t so much the power behind the punches as it was his style. He claims that a more technical boxer like Chavez may have better balance and avoid the big knockdowns.
“It was different, it was weird,” Perry told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. “I train with boxing gloves on to spar but the way that he put his weight into some things, it’s not like the punches were hurting my head so much.
Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
“But he would catch me when I was off balance and I don’t think Chavez will be off balance the way that I was… Chavez is a more formal boxer, I do better when I can do more of an MMA striking style and make it dirty.
“That’s how I was able to beat a 27-3 boxer by making it dirty which I was allowed to do under those rules. But just clean boxing, he doesn’t have terrible power, his power was there. He was able to knock me down and use his weight and size, but Chavez is a little closer to his size.
“They’re very similar and I think Jake has some good skill, he’s got a great team around him and those things make big differences.”
Mike Perry breaks down Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s chances against Jake Paul
Chavez made his last outing in the ring on the undercard of Paul and Perry’s fight last year. He struggled to a controversial decision win against Uriah Hall, but is believed to be taking this bout considerably more seriously.
“We saw Chavez on that card, Uriah Hall may not have had the boxing experience but we’ve seen him be very strong in the stand-up game and there were some things that were tough for him to transition into that boxing.
“Chavez does have some size, they’re fighting at 200lb again, Jake’s cutting that weight again and he’ll be putting good weight on. We saw him against Mike Tyson at 227lb so he’ll have good weight on, and he has got some power, size and skill.
“However, Chavez has a ton of experience in boxing with almost 60 professional boxing fights. His record has over 50 wins under the belt in boxing itself and his father was an all-time great so there’s a lot of pressure on him.
“I wonder how that is because Jake has been talking some trash. I don’t know how it’s going to go because Chavez has got a lot of experience and I got to speak with him back when me and Jake did fight and he’s got a little bit more size than me to go along with the boxing skill.
“It’s a tough fight for Jake, but anything can happen.”