The heavily tatted Paul weighed in at 191.5 pounds, while Askren, protected only by his flip-flops (and ex-UFC champ Tyron Woodley), hit the scale at 191 pounds. That certified their eight-round, cruiserweight fight on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
As they did at the official press conference for Triller Fight Club’s second event, Paul and Askren traded insults on the mic. Robots notwithstanding, Paul cut a far more serious figure than the entirely casual troll of Askren.
Intro’d by Boxing Hall of Fame announcer Michael Buffer, Askren first chastised Paul’s entourage for “interrupting the legendary Michael Buffer. That was terrible. Rude guys.”
Paul was all business: “I see a guy who’s underestimating me. I see a guy who said, ‘I have to take a sh*t in the faceoff. This is the last 24 hours we will all have to hear Ben Askren, and this one’s for Shadow.”
Shadow was Paul’s bodyguard, who made a bold prediction of a Paul win before his untimely passing.
“We’ll see,” Paul said. “I don’t think he makes it out of two rounds. Look at the guy. He’s got a beer belly. Clearly, he didn’t take training camp seriously, and we all did the talking. We did the entertainment sh*t. But now it’s time to let the fists fly.”
Askren couldn’t let that be the final word. He stopped announcer Ray Flores before making his exit.
“The other thing, people told me, but I didn’t realize until I got so close, but that hairline’s moving back really quickly,” he said.
The other MMA star on Saturday’s fight card, Frank Mir, also raised eyebrows by clocking in at 276 pounds, 70 more than his opponent, former IBF champ Steve Cunningham. The two looked several weight classes apart as they stared each other down politely.
Here are the Paul vs. Askren official weigh-in results:
Jake Paul (191.5) vs. Ben Askren (191)
Regis Prograis (143) vs. Ivan Redkach (142)
Steve Cunningham (206) vs. Frank Mir (276)
Joe Fournier (187) vs. Reykon (178.5)
Junior Younan (171.5) vs. Jeyson Minda (171.5)
Quinton Randall (149) vs. William Jackson (144)
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