Jake Paul has claimed former world champion Steve Cunningham was "blown away" by his ability in sparring.
Paul will take on Hasim Rahman Jr in his sixth professional fight on August 6 at Madison Square Garden. It will be the toughest test of his career after his original planned fight with Tommy Fury collapsing after the Briton was prevented from travelling to the US.
The YouTube star has sparred with several professional fighters including former cruiserweight king Cunningham. And Paul has claimed positive feedback from top boxers has seen his confidence grow. "I like to go harder in sparring to prepare myself for fight night," Paul said when assessing his sparring with Cunningham on the Flagrant podcast. "When I sparred with former world champion Steve Cunningham, three-time world champion and this was a year ago. He is bigger than me and taller than me and knocked down Tyson Fury.
"He still did a great job, shout to Steve he was the first real world champion I sparred against and I did phenomenal. He was blown away and he said 'you are going to be alright'. I only spar people who are better than the person I am going to fight and I have never been knocked down once in sparring. And this is the confidence I have myself to talk this s***."
Cunningham fought on the undercard of Paul's previous victory over MMA star Ben Askren last year, where his career began to take off as a professional. The 45-year-old has already backed up Paul's fresh claim by tweeting after his victory over Tyron Woodley: "I sparred with Jake Paul for 2 weeks last month.
"I immediately noticed he’s better than people think. He’s not just a 'YouTuber', he's putting in the work to be better. He has a solid team around him that pushes him, people need to remember boxing is the entertainment business."
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Paul has been working with trainers Danny Smith and BJ Flores in Puerto Rico ahead of his boxing return against Rahman Jr. His upcoming rival has extensive experience as an amateur in the sport and has lost just one of his thirteen professional fights. Smith has revealed that Paul's sessions have been a matter of "life and death" to prepare him for the toughest test of his career so far.
"The media and a lot of fighters don't know how well he's progressing and they really don't know how serious he is," Smith told Vegas Insider. "They're going to be underestimating him when they get in there until they feel his presence, his strength, his power, his speed.
"We've noticed that with a lot of sparring partners because they get in there and they're like 'wow, it's a life or death situation in there with him and he's better than we thought'. The world is going to see that. The most important thing that I'm working on is his defence."
