MIAMI – As expected, Jake Paul lost to Anthony Joshua in their boxing match and in brutal fashion. But as far as Paul’s manager, Nakisa Bidarian, is concerned, he might’ve won the night.
“I could not be happier with the fact that Jake is safe and more so that he showed his heart,” Bidarian told reporters, including MMA Junkie, during Friday night’s post-event news conference. “I don’t know if you guys were looking on Twitter, but until about 20 minutes ago, the No. 1 trending thing on Twitter wasn’t Jake Paul getting knocked out, wasn’t Anthony Joshua. It literally was the phrase ‘respect for Jake Paul.’ And I can tell you guys I have so much respect for that young man.”
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Paul hung in there with Joshua for more than 16 minutes before Joshua landed a vicious right hand to break Paul’s jaw and win by sixth-round knockout in their Netflix-streamed headliner at Kaseya Center. To Paul’s credit, the fight wasn’t the immediate beatdown everyone thought they would see between a YouTuber-turned-pro-boxer in his sixth year competing and a two-time unified heavyweight champion/Olympic gold medalist with more than double the experience and a massive size advantage.
Bidarian attributed that to Paul having a great game plan – which included some stall tactics – preparation and “unbelievable heart.”
“The reality is my hope was that nobody would get hurt from the first fight of the night to the last fight of the night, and ultimately that’s what happened,: Bidarian said. “And ultimately Jake Paul lasted a lot longer than anyone said he was going to. … I think he might’ve won a round or two or even three. He was doing tremendously well in there against a person who was vastly more skilled, vastly larger, vastly more powerful, and he did it on four weeks’ preparation.”
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After the fight, Joshua talked about seeing Paul’s soul “leave his body round after round” until the finish. Bidarian, however, downplayed that way of putting it.
“Jake lost because of the size difference, not because of the skill difference,” Bidarian said. “AJ was hanging on that neck, pushing him down. And when you have someone that heavy constantly doing that, it does suck the energy out of you.
“AJ talked about taking the man’s soul; he didn’t take out his soul. He did take out his energy, and that’s when he was able to get the finish.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jake Paul’s manager: Respect his name after Anthony Joshua fight
