That’s according to the 24-year-old social influencer turned professional boxer, who moved to 3-0 in his career on Saturday night after putting Askren away at just 1:59 into the opening round.
The knockout came in dramatic fashion after Paul popped Askren with a left jab and then followed that with a brutal right hand that flattened the retired UFC fighter. Askren managed to get back to his feet again but the referee didn’t feel like he should continue and the fight was stopped.
Afterwards, Paul explained what he remembered about the sequence that led to his third consecutive knockout victory.
“I set him up for sure,” Paul said during the post-fight press conference. “I was going to the body the whole fight. I was barely hitting him. My check hook was f*cking him up. I was setting him up the whole time. I was saving the right hand for that moment. I knew he wouldn’t see it coming.
“My coach in the corner was like ‘don’t load up, don’t load up!’ That’s what he told me the whole camp — don’t load up, don’t load up! But I was like this guy is a joker. I’m loading up right now coach, sorry.”
Paul following his own advice obviously paid off after he dispatched Askren in quicker fashion than either of his two previous opponents.
In fact, Paul predicted that he would make easy work of Askren, especially knowing how the former Bellator and ONE champion would likely approach their fight in his first boxing match.
“I mean I said it the whole time. I said this fight’s going to be easier than Nate Robinson,” Paul said when referencing his second-round knockout win against the ex-NBA player in his previous fight. “No one believed me as usual. At one point I was the underdog as the betting favorite, I’m not going to let y’all forget that. I was the underdog. That sounds crazy but I was the underdog.
“I knew it was going to be easier because Nate Robinson was weird. He fought like a random guy on the street. I knew Ben was going to sit there like a typical MMA fighter, just have no head movement and his body was going to be wide open. I’m just too powerful. The cows in Ohio produce a different type of protein and when I’m sitting there bailing hay since a 10 year old, I’ve just got some real thick sh*t in my arms.”
Considering the kind of attention and paycheck Paul received for the fight against Askren on Saturday night, he will undoubtedly have a lot of offers coming his way as potential opponents will waste no time calling him out.
For his part, Paul isn’t ready to address his future just yet after an emotional few weeks leading up to the fight. He lost a close friend after one of his security guards died recently as well as sexual assault allegations levied against him by a TikTok star earlier in the week.
Paul has vehemently denied those allegations.
“I’m going to do whatever I want honestly,” Paul said when asked about what’s next for him. “I feel like I’m living in a dream right now. Honestly, I don’t think I’m going to be doing good at these interviews right now because I’ve had so much on my mind in the past 10 days and I’ve had to hold it together. I’ve had to persevere through a lot of hard sh*t. Allegations. Death. The list goes on and I don’t know what’s next for me.
“I’ve been going for 14 months, fighting three times. I talked a lot of sh*t. I don’t know what’s next. I’m just going to enjoy my life for a second.”
{feed:enclosure_href }
More...
