If Anderson Silva hadn't beat a former world champion, then Jake Paul would be the favorite in this match for a lot of reasons.
- Anderson Silva is 47 years old
- In the last 10 years, Anderson went 2-7 in MMA (technically 1-7-1), albeit vs top flight competition
- In Anderson's last MMA fight, Uriah Hall dropped him with a not-that-powerful punch and then finished him.
- Boxing has never been Anderson's primary discipline and it's not like he was just outboxing people left and right in the UFC (see Weidman #1, Uriah Hall). Boxing was at best Anderson's 4th discipline. If one were to rank his proficiency's in the various disciplines while in MMA it would probably be 1) Muay Thai, 2) BJJ, 3) Tae-Kwondo, 4) Boxing 5) Capoeira
Of course we saw Anderson beat Julio Cesar Chavez jr and that match should be very relevant, but Oscar De La Hoya says it isn't . He says Chavez was not even 20% of himself in that fight. De La Hoya is predicting that jake Paul will knock him out, and that's not that crazy of a prediction.
Of course, Anderson does bring size and length that Jake Paul hasn't had to deal with in the ring. Of course he's dealt with it in training though and was well aware of what he was getting into when he took this match. On the flip side, if Jake loses this match, the Jake Paul train doesn't suddenly come to a screeching halt. Far from it. I think they are willing to take a tough match like this in part because Jake Paul will still be a highly marketable boxer whether he wins or loses.