Editor’s note: This article was originally published at MMAJunkie.com.
Jake Paul showed up to Thursday’s news conference for his rematch with Tyron Woodley wearing a ski mask, which he no doubt thought was cool and made a statement, but there was just one problem: It was unoriginal.
“I thought to myself it’s funny how these ‘professionals’ like Tommy Fury – who’s considered a professional boxer – gets sick, breaks a rib and doesn’t want to fight,” Paul told reporters. “I’ve fought sick, I’ve fought hurt. You’ve got to go in there and get the job done. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, you’ve got Tyron Woodley now.’ No problem.
“That’s why I’ve got the ski mask on. They’re gonna give me a big bag to go and beat the guy I already beat? This is a bank robbery.”
"They're going to give me a big bag to beat the guy I already beat. This is a bank robbery." @jakepaul
Order #PaulWoodley: https://t.co/K8evGXftD4 pic.twitter.com/EOnvyDGNfi
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) December 16, 2021
Cool, but Floyd Mayweather did it first.
When Mayweather fought Conor McGregor back in 2017 in the original boxer vs. MMA fighter boxing match, Mayweather walked out to the ring in a ski mask, looking like this:
Aug 26, 2017; Las Vegas: Floyd Mayweather enters the ring prior to his fight against Conor McGregor. (Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports)
Nobody knew why at the time. It wasn’t until a few days after the fight, which Mayweather won by 10th-round TKO and earned him a reported $275 million, that we found out the reason from boxing coach and longtime friend, Angelo Reyes (via MMA Weekly):
“To us in the boxing culture, we were kind of laughing about it because it’s Floyd Mayweather’s ode to the movie ‘Dead Presidents,’ where he put the ski mask on because it’s a bank robbery. Basically he was saying it was a heist. Like Conor actually believed he could beat Floyd Mayweather and all that happened was he got fooled into the biggest pay-per-view, the biggest payday opportunity of all time. That’s why he put on the ski mask, which I thought was pretty awesome.”
So there you go. The ski-mask thing was done before, and it was with hundreds of millions of dollars being made by Mayweather in a much easier fight against McGregor than what Paul faces in a rematch with Woodley after winning a prior split decision. That really was a bank robbery.
Next time, Paul will have to come up with something on his own.
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