Jake Paul is one of the most controversial figures in boxing right now. He is also one of the most talked about. As a former YouTuber turned boxer he has a huge following amongst younger people, all of whom have been impressed by his trash talk and swept up in his ability to hype a fight using social media.

More hardcore fans have been less impressed with his wins as they have often come against boxing novices or older combat legends at the end of their career, such as this past weekend when he stopped former UFC fighter and bare-knuckle fighter Mike Perry.

Next up for him is a fight with former heavyweight legend Mike Tyson in November across eight two-minute rounds.

Ahead of that, pound-for-pound star and two-time undisputed champion Terence Crawford spoke to MMA FightingonSBA about Paul’s potential to eventually win a legitimate cruiserweight world title.

“It’s possible. 

Listen, a lot of people write Jake off but Jake can punch with that right hand. He’s got a nice right hand. He’s building himself up just like a regular boxer. People gotta understand that people look at him and say ‘Jake needs to fight me’, everybody’s grabbing for the attention of fighting Jake at the moment. But it’s just like a professional boxer coming up the rankings, they don’t go straight to the champions, they’re coming up, they fighting the best fighter they can learn from. “

He then said Paul is following the right path and learning on the job as he works his way through the ranks.

“Right now, Jake’s in the learning process. He’s only had 10 fights. He’s just taking his time, doing what he should do, keep getting better, keep learning, keep getting more experience. Then you know, sooner or later, once you start picking up fights with better competition you’ll be ready for those moments cause you build the ring IQ and stamina and everything you need to know to keep getting better.”

As for Crawford, he’s next out on August 3 in his first fight at 154 lbs when he takes on Israil Madrimov for the WBA light middleweight title.