Jake Paul revealed Tuesday that Daniel Dubois challenged him to a fight with the IBF world heavyweight championship on the line.
Paul posted about the challenge on X, including the screenshot of Dubois DM'ing him and asking how he would feel about "fighting for the legitimate heavyweight championship of the world."
In response, Paul told Dubois to "get in line," in an apparent reference to the many challenges he has received since beating Mike Tyson by unanimous decision this past Friday.
In what was undoubtedly the biggest fight of his young boxing career, Paul took on Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as the headliner on a card that streamed live on Netflix.
While there was some hope among boxing fans that the 58-year-old Tyson would be able draw from his experience as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time in order to remain competitive against a much-younger opponent, it turned out to be a one-sided fight.
After Tyson came out firing in the first two rounds and landed some solid shots, the 27-year-old Paul wore him down the rest of the way, moving much more effectively and rocking the former world heavyweight champion on multiple occasions.
While the eight-round fight went the distance, there was no argument when Paul was deemed the winner by unanimous decision, bringing his career record to 11-1.
Paul has undoubtedly been impressive since turning pro as a boxer in 2020, but many have fairly critiqued his quality of opponent.
The vast majority of those who Paul has boxed have been significantly older than him, and many of them were not even boxers, including former NBA guard Nate Robinson and veteran MMA fighters such as Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz.
Paul's only loss was a split decision to 25-year-old boxer Tommy Fury, leaving many to question what would happen if Paul were to face a highly ranked boxer in his prime.
The 27-year-old Dubois fits the bill, as the Englishman is undoubtedly in the midst of the best run of his career.
Dubois owns a record of 22-2, and he possesses elite power with 21 of his wins coming by way of knockout. He has also faced an impressive level of competition, facing some of the top heavyweights in boxing.
He lost to then-undisputed world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk by ninth-round knockout in August 2023, but bounced back to beat previously undefeated Filip Hrgović by eighth-round technical knockout to win the interim IBF heavyweight title.
In his biggest win to date, Dubois retained the IBF heavyweight title with a fifth-round knockout of Anthony Joshua in September. Joshua is a multi-time world champion in his own right and one of only five boxers to ever defeat legendary heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko.
Dubois would undoubtedly be Paul's toughest opponent to date, and given Paul's relative lack of experience, it is fair to wonder if he truly wants to take that fight, as he would run the risk of getting exposed.
With that said, Paul did recently call out multi-weight-class world champion Canelo Álvarez for a future bout, but Canelo made it clear that Paul isn't on his radar, saying, "I'm not interested."
Dubois isn't as accomplished as Álvarez, but he is much bigger and stronger, which could make him a matchup nightmare for "The Problem Child."
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