Veteran promoter Bob Arum shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight in an interview with Fight Hub TV. Arum didn't hold back his criticism:
"Chavez Jr, I thought he had hung up the gloves a long time ago. Jake Paul is not a boxer. It's a spectacle."
Arum expressed concern about the legitimacy of the match-up, especially considering Chavez Jr's well-documented struggles outside the ring and his inactivity at a high level. The promoter predicted that the fight organizers will likely avoid strict medical vetting:
"They'll go to a place where being medically vetted is not the same as it would be, say, in Nevada. They'll work their way around it."
The veteran promoter also criticized Paul's recent fight with 58-year-old Mike Tyson:
"The Tyson event was sort of demeaning for the sport of boxing. Tyson was an old man. What are we talking about? Mike Tyson shouldn't have been in the ring. No commission should've allowed Mike Tyson to put on a pair of boxing gloves."
Despite his harsh words, Arum acknowledged Paul's business acumen:
"Jake Paul is not fighting a real fighter. He's smarter than you and me combined. It's not a scam because people know what they're getting, but he's not interested in fighting somebody that can really give him a whooping."
This fight comes after Paul's failed negotiations with bigger names like Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gervonta Davis. The 39-year-old Chavez Jr presents a less risky option for the YouTuber-turned-boxer, who's looking to maintain his lucrative career in the sport.
Arum summed up his stance on the event: "I have absolutely no interest in a Jake Paul-Chavez Jr fight, because it's not boxing." However, he added, "If Netflix or somebody else wants to pay for that event, that's fine."