Daniel Cormier lauds Jake Paul for being brave, but doesn’t think he’s very smart.
Paul was knocked out by former two-time unified heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua in Round 6 of their boxing match at Kaseya Center in Miami last month.
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The loss resulted in Paul breaking his jaw in two places, but that hasn’t stopped the 28-year-old, who immediately turned his attention to Francis Ngannou.
“Jake Paul just got his head bashed in by Anthony Joshua, right? That was about as big a learning lesson that anyone could have been taught,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Here’s the problem: Jake Paul has proven to be, one, hard-headed; two, more bold and brave than anyone could have ever imagined – bold and brave because he fought Anthony Joshua to begin with.
“Bold and brave because they didn’t put any things in place to make sure Anthony didn’t do exactly what he did to him, broke his jaw in multiple places, got him sucking out of a straw. It would seem like his bold and brave attitude really cost him. And with that bold and brave attitude a lot of the times comes cowardice after. Not Jake Paul. Not Jake Paul. You can love him, you can hate him, but he’s brave.”
Cormier is shocked to see Paul go after Ngannou, who almost beat Tyson Fury, but also got knocked out by Joshua.
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“I would have thought, I swear to God, I would have thought that after what happened with Anthony Joshua, Jake Paul would say, ‘OK, let me rematch Anderson (Silva) or somebody,” Cormier said. “You would have thought Jake Paul would go, ‘You know what? I’m going to rematch Anderson, maybe I will find another mixed marital arts guy that’s a little bit over the hill to try to fight where it’s more safe and it’s a more controlled environment because the problem with the Anthony Joshua fight is it wasn’t controlled. It was just a fight. That’s not Jake Paul, though. He immediately goes back after Francis Ngannou. It’s crazy to me.”
When Gervonta Davis withdrew from his fight against Paul, “The Problem Child” called out Ngannou, but Ngannou wasn’t interested. Joshua ended up taking the fight instead, which Cormier thinks would now make Ngannou open to fighting Paul.
However, Cormier thinks it would be a bad idea for Paul.
“For as small as Jake looked against Anthony, he’ll look equally as small against Francis Ngannou,” Cormier said. “But I think what’s happening with Jake is he’s wanting to show that Anthony Joshua didn’t knock scared into him, which in reality he probably should have knocked a little scared into him.
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“I just don’t think (Paul) can hurt him. I just don’t know that he can hurt Francis like he thinks he can hurt Francis. You can never question the boldness of Jake Paul. You could never question the toughness of Jake Paul. I question his smarts. I think he needs to reconsider.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC analyst warns Jake Paul of calling out Francis Ngannou
