Successful social media personality turned aspiring boxing superstar Jake Paul is having some complications during the early stages of his fighting career. The novice boxer who has an impressive three-year run is admitting to having cognitive problems on an episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger.
“I notice it in conversations with, like, with my girlfriend or friends, like, not remembering something that I should be able to remember that happened a couple days ago,” he said. “… Sometimes in my speech, where, like, every hundredth or two hundredth word, I’ll mess up or, like, slur, which I didn’t do that before,” Paul said on the show.
Boxing and neurological damage are highly interconnected, and has been scientifically proven to be so.
According to the Bleacher Report, “A 2012 study released by the American Academy of Neurology (via CBSNews.com) found “those with more years of fighting experience overall, as well as those participating in more fights per year, were more likely to have lower brain volumes than fighters who had the least experience.”
This common understanding within the boxing world may be why Paul announced an early retirement this summer. Well, a short-lived retirement.
“Updated status: Retired boxer,” Paul tweeted back in August of 2021. “Updated status: I’m coming out of retirement,” sent in a follow-up tweet a day later. The day-long retirement probably was because Paul didn’t want to stop while he was ahead.
Since Jake Paul has been boxing, his accomplishments as a boxer have garnered massive media attention, fueling his confidence within the fight arena. The 24-year-old famous media personality slash fight sensation has four wins, zero losses and no draws thus far.
Beating fighters from all career paths, including the professional MMA fighting industry, Paul is on a roll. Winning against MMA fighters Ben Askren and Tyler Woodley legitimized Paul as a fighter, supporting why he should be taken seriously as a professional fighter.
Although Paul has made major strides as a boxer, his deteriorating cognitive health may be the reason his strides come to a halt. While Paul is scheduled to step into the ring with Woodley again on Saturday (December 18), he may want to rethink doing so, unless he wants his condition to worsen.