Top five ranked UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith went in on YouTuber turned professional boxer, Jake Paul.
Paul is coming off of his sixth straight win inside the boxing ring, though not a single one of those wins came against a trained professional boxer. Instead, Paul has primarily focused on past-their-prime mixed martial artists such as Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley. On Saturday night, ‘The Problem Child’ added another UFC icon to his resume when he defeated Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva via unanimous decision.
Ahead of the pay-per-view event, UFC fighter Anthony Smith absolutely ripped into the social media star, calling for people to boycott his fights in an expletive-filled rant.
“If Jake Paul beats Anderson Silva, we should all f*cking boycott the rest of his fights until he f*cking fights some that are on his level, or whatever level we deem him to be on,” Smith said on the Believe You Me podcast ahead of the fight. “You talk all this sh*t about MMA fighters, you talk sh*t about UFC and then you pretend that you want to bring fighters up, and you want everyone to get paid better, but then you trash everyone every time they fight.”
who has any thoughts on this???? pic.twitter.com/8ZYujffpEy
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) October 31, 2022
Anthony Smith Isn’t Buying Into Jake Paul’s Mission for Better Fighter Pay
Ahead of Saturday’s main event showdown, Jake Paul and Anderson Silva made a deal that if ‘The Spider’ lost, he would have to work with ‘The Problem Child’ on creating the United Fighters Association in an effort to help UFC fighters earn better pay and proper healthcare.
Paul has been one of the most outspoken advocates for fighter pay in recent years, though not everyone is convinced the YouTube star is being sincere in his crusade against UFC president Dana White.
“Now we’re putting food on your f*cking table for you to drag our legends?” Smith said. “Older, shorter, smaller, past their prime legends that have spent their entire career running their bodies into f*cking car accidents, and we hold these guys near and dear to our hearts.
“And then this f*ckhead pulls them out of semi-retirement and knocks them out on pay-per-view and then still sh*ts on all of us? Go f*ck yourself. Like, why are we still pandering to this piece of sh*t?”
