Israel Adesanya was surprised Jake Paul defeated Anderson Silva by decision after suggesting the YouTube star would need to win by KO.
Paul made his sixth professional appearance in the boxing ring last weekend when he took on the toughest test of his career to date against UFC legend Silva. The YouTube star knocked down his opponent in the final round after a tough battle, but was unable to force the stoppage, instead earning a unanimous decision on the judges scorecards.
The judges scored the bout 77-74, 78-73 and 78- 73 in favour of Paul unanimously, with the content creator deemed to have taken control of the majority of the contest despite his opponent's experience. And UFC middleweight champion Adesanya admitted he saw a "master at work" when watching his former opponent Silva.
"I love this game. To me though, even when I watch [Floyd] Mayweather on Instagram, seeing him hit the pads or hit the bag - the same thing with Silva, I'll always enjoy watching him move," Adesanya said while reacting live to the fight on his YouTube channel during a video. :I'll always enjoy even just that. I've always enjoyed when he starts to move. I feel nostalgic right now.
"This is what Anderson does, he hasn't attacked yet. He's just reading. Classic Silva. Now he's starting to move. This is classic, bro. I love this guy. You have got to appreciate a master at work, man." He later added after the final bell when Paul's victory was announced: "I didn't think it would be a decision against Silva, I thought he would have to knock him out but he did that."
Adesanya previously defeated Silva in the UFCwhen the Brazilian was coming to the end of his stint with the promotion, and was on hand to give Paul advice going into the clash. The YouTube star defeated his third former UFC fighter having defeated Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley twice prior to his latest test.
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And Paul has admitted he struggled to break the resilience of Silva in the ring who he believes showed heart to prevent the late stoppage from coming to fruition. "It is surreal I don't think it will hit me until a couple of weeks from now," Paul said at the post-fight press conference. "Just being in the ring with him seeing his heart, courage and bravery.
"We were throwing big shots all night. That one [knockdown] caught him off guard when he was coming up. He was taking harder shots than that it wasn't the hardest punch of the night. It was obviously just the timing and I was just surprised by his toughness as I was dropping sparring partners with them shots in camp."
