Jake Paul claims he’d “1000 percent” beat Alex Pereira in Boxing, says Khalil Rountree Jr. exposed glaring holes
Jake Paul is supremely confident in his chances if he comes face-to-face with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in the boxing ring.
Pereira successfully defended the UFC light heavyweight for the third time in 2024 by finishing Khalil Rountree Jr. last Saturday. After falling behind in the early rounds, Pereira badly battered Rountree in Round 4 to eventually finish the title challenger.
Pereira is regarded as one of the top strikers in combat sports after an impressive run in the UFC. Before making the full-time transition to mixed martial arts, Pereira was a force in kickboxing.
Pereira has one professional boxing fight on his record, a TKO win in June 2017. If Pereira gets out of his UFC contract, Paul wants to make the Pereira fight happen to teach the UFC champ a lesson.
Jake Paul believes Khalil Rountree Jr. exposed Alex Pereira at UFC 307
In a recent sitdown with Adin Ross, Paul was asked about how a boxing match with Pereira would play out.
”One thousand percent I would beat him,” Paul said. “That’s the thing is, Rountree actually kind of exposed that he doesn’t have a high volume output. He doesn’t like body shots. In MMA, Pereira would rip my head off. But boxing is a completely different sport, and the pace of it, and the style of it…
”He has holes. I mean, Rountree rocked him, hurt him a couple of times to the body, but didn’t follow up on it. So if anything, this fight showed me, yes, Alex Pereira is great. But I know I would beat him in a boxing match, and I still would love to make that happen. Pressure is on him. If he can find his way out of the UFC contract like Nate Diaz did, then eventually him and I can talk.” (h/t MMA Junkie)
As of this writing, Pereira hasn’t responded to Paul’s comments. Paul will face heavyweight boxing legend Mike Tyson on November 15th.
