Jake Paul has been criticized by Lorenz Larkin for his contribution to the combat sports world.
Larking is set to return to action against Mukhamed Berkhamov in a welterweight bout this Friday on the main card of Bellator 283 at Emerald Queen Casino and Hotel in Tacoma, Washington, and broadcast on Showtime.
The MMA veteran, who started fighting professionally in 2009, is not pleased with what the sport has become.
Lorenz Larkin loses it at Jake Paul & the current scene of combat sports
“The Monsoon” talked to MMA Fighting about his frustrations with the contemporary combat sports world.
“Once the fandango s*** with Jake Paul and all of that s***, that era of everybody just fighting everybody is all gone. Combat sports suck, and let me tell you why it sucks, and this is the honest to God truth from personal experiences: People don’t have a full understanding of combat sports, your usual people.
“For instance, there’s been many times where I don’t even tell people I fight. If they don’t know me, I don’t even tell them what I do for a living. I tell them I have a trucking company.
“Combat sports, it’s such a wide scale. If I tell people I fight that I don’t know, it’s like, ‘Oh, you do that UFC stuff, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and then it goes into that thing where it’s like, ‘I’ve got a nephew who fights,’ and it’s nothing against it, but he might be an amateur, or a early pro, and sometimes you have to not be a dick, and say, ‘Well, I’m a little different than your nephew.’
“I say this because, say you’re in the NFL, that’s it. ‘Oh, s***, he’s in the NFL.’ But it’s not like that for everybody, only certain people know that it’s the UFC, Bellator, PFL, ONE.
“I say this because when you have f****** YouTubers renting out Staples Center having boxing matches, and you have these fighters like Jake Paul who, let’s be honest, he can fight for where he’s at, and the guys he’s fighting don’t have a boxing background — for these type of guys to come in, it just changes combat sports.
“It makes people think, ‘Oh, I can do that s***.’ You won’t be like, ‘Hey, dude, I’m an athlete, I can go f****** heads up with Warren Sapp or f****** Ray Lewis.’ You wouldn’t think that. You’d be like, ‘F*** no.’” (transcribed by MMA Fighting)
Larkin reveals his biggest issue
The biggest sticking point for Larkin is how far the sport has moved from its roots. As per Larkin, fewer people would think that they could compete with the fighters during the early days.
“It’s just hard because those guys just come over to our world, to combat sports, and they think they can fight. These motherf******, if they want to come in, put them with somebody serious serious.
“Put them with someone who can really box, if they just want to box. Put them with a real boxer, not just some bulls***. It’s just a s***** era right now, man. It’s a different era now, and not for a good reason. I just like to fight, and as long as I get to fight, I don’t need to do anything else.
“But the era now is just talk — talking and picking the right fights for yourself, not necessarily challenging yourself, but getting the easiest fights there are for your style so you can grow your social platform. That’s what it’s all about right now, that’s the era for most fighters.
“Now guys aren’t necessarily asking for the top guys, they’re trying to talk a lot and get matched up against guys that aren’t maybe on their level yet, and then skip the beef in their weight classes off of their hype off social media and their fans.
“It’s more so taking the easier fights, talking a lot of s***, creating drama, and getting the fan base to get behind you so you can skip the tough fights, and get the big fights. If you lose, you lost to the champ, but you skipped over everybody.”
Larkin will take on Berkhamov on Jul. 22 at Bellator 283.
