Jake Paul 's coach says his sparring partners quickly realise they are in a "life or death" situation once stepping into the ring with him.
Paul is gearing up for his boxing return on August 6 at Madison Square Garden having not fought since knocking out ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley last December. 'The Problem Child' is expected to face Love Island star Tommy Fury next with the fight "around 90 per cent done".
The American's coach Danny Smith has been working with him in Puerto Rico ahead of his boxing return. Smith said Paul is progressing rapidly and often is underestimated by his sparring partners during training.
“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, his understanding of the selection of punches that you can throw and that same selection of punches that can come back. So defence is a huge factor in surviving in boxing.”
Paul has competed at 192lb for his boxing fights but Smith said the influencer-turned-boxer intends to drop down to light-heavyweight in the future. Smith expects Paul's disciplined schedule will allow him to eventually break into the top-ten rankings at 175lb.
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“I know for sure that we're not going to be at cruiserweight. We're going to come to light heavy. 175. We've just been fighting at the 190-192 limit. He's just floating around that weight, but he will be a 175 pounder and he will crack the top ten [in the world]," he added.
“He has to stay so locked into his training because he knows that he doesn't have the amateur background. So we're training all year round. We're working on things all year round. It's not like we meet like the typical former champion or current champion and work out for eight weeks and then we disperse. We keep working all year round.”
