Elder Abuse? Jake Paul can’t stop, won’t stop beating up old fighters | Paul vs. Chavez Jr

Andrew Richardson is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif., providing MMAmania.com (and its readers) with expert technical fighter breakdowns, insight and analysis you can't get anywhere else.

Is anybody excited for Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr?

Actually, I’ll lower the bar further: does that match up trigger an emotional reaction of any kind? At least in the case of Paul vs. Mike Tyson, I felt genuine disgust at the immoral spectacle of it all. In the game of combat sports promotion, disgust is way better than apathy, and the insane Netflix numbers reflected as such.

An ungodly number of people watched that stupid ... well, a generous description would be sparring match and an accurate one would be farce. Still, the bouthe bout was genuinely one of the biggest sporting events of the year. The problem, however, is that it was entirely unwatchable from an entertainment standpoint. For some reason, Netflix didn’t talk about how many screen were turning the channel somewhere around the third round.

For all the statistical success, did the match grow Paul’s star or just his bank account?

Against Chavez Jr, Paul is continuing to run his oldest play: fighting older, smaller opponents who once accomplished something. First, it was beat up an (older, smaller) Olympian, then multiple (older, smaller) UFC champions, then a (older, smaller) bare knuckle champion, and onward until Paul can truthfully claim he’s beaten a former Heavyweight boxing champion of the world. If you can just ignore the fact that Mike Tyson was ancient and all the others were 30-pounds lighter, it’s quite the resume.

Chavez Jr. is 39 years old and won his belt in 2011 at 160-pounds. He’s a fresh-faced teenager compared to “Iron” Mike, but everybody and their mother knows Chavez Jr. has struggled with motivation, consistency, and addiction for more than a decade now. The chances of a turn-back-the-clock performance are slim, and the extremely wide betting odds reflect this pessimistic view.

More likely than not, Paul will soon be trying to argue that he’s beaten multiple boxing world champions, once again just begging fans to ignore all context. After Tyson, however, it feels like fewer people are buying into the bit. Paul went too old, and the whole scheme collapsed in on itself. He doesn’t look like a boxing prospect, just a bully, and who really cares about some turd buying favorable match ups?

I’m sure a good handful of people will click on the highlights clips, but I’m predicting fewer fans tune into this match up than they would have pre-Mike Tyson. Paul is a magician with one trick, and he demonstrated in detail how the illusion functions last November.

It’s more than time to switch it up. Box KSI, rematch Tommy Fury, or (heaven forbid) fight an actual young boxer who has aspirations beyond club fighter. Paul seems to think if he can just beat up the right old person, he’ll be rewarded with the Canelo match up. He might be correct, but he also risks losing all interest in his boxing career if he continues to batter us with the same style of match up ad nauseam.