Stephanie Barnes
Jake Paul has come a long way since his days on the Disney Channel, but whether he’s going in the right direction has yet to be determined. The 24-year-old stepped away from acting and later became a popular YouTuber with his brother, Logan.
Now, Paul is trying to make waves in the professional boxing space. But despite only having a handful of boxing matches under his belt, he’s already started having serious issues.
In a recent interview, Paul explained that he has become forgetful and sometimes suffers with slurred speech. Before stepping into the ring as pro fighter, he had a brain scan done to have a base recording of what his brain looked like.
Those initial scans showed some damage from Paul’s football days, but after fighting in four matches, the boxer said things have become noticeable worse.
“I got my brain scanned right before I started boxing and the doctor told me there’s lack of blood flow from the concussions I had playing football to certain areas on my brain. One of them I believe is the frontal lobe which is partial for memory and so on. After my first year of boxing I went back and it was worse,” he said.
“[The doctors] advice is don’t do that sport. That’s all they can advise as a doctor, I think before it was affecting me at a rapid pace because I never took it easy,” he continued.
He went on to say that he has also noticed that he would often unable be unable to recall things in conversations.
“I notice it in conversations with my girlfriends or friends, not remembering something that I should be able to remember that happened a couple days ago. Sometimes in my speech, there’s like every 100th or 200th word I’ll mess up or like slur, which I didn’t do that before,” Paul explained
But despite the advice from his doctors, Paul doesn’t seem to be slowing down. It was previously announced that he would be moving forward with a rematch with Tyron Woodley this weekend. Paul defeated Woodley in their first match, and fans are counting on him to do it again.
However, it’s possible that Woodley could even the score as Paul has offered to sweeten the deal. The 24-year-old has offered his opponent $500,000 (£375,000) extra, if he is able to knock him out.
Paul’s sparing partner, Jake Bostwick, told Betway US blog that it’s a “crazy clause.” He also offered a bit of insight on Paul’s thought process.
“He could be dangling that carrot in front of Tyron to get him to come out recklessly and that also adds pressure on Tyron,” he said. “If Tyron comes out swinging he could get caught and we know Jake has power, don’t sleep on Jake’s power. I think Woodley will come out with a fire under his a** and try to bang but he’s got to be smart.”