CHEAVON CLARKE is ready to answer fans’ calls and fight Jake Paul after being inundated with messages to humble the American.
The Tokyo Olympian was asleep when YouTuber-turned boxer Paul told Eddie Hearn he would beat any of his prospects with under ten bouts.
He said to Hearn: “I believe that I will beat anybody on your roster that’s under ten fights. Anyone.
“Any one of your fighters that’s had under ten fights, easy. Any weight.”
Hearn then shrewdly offered up Clarke, who has has just one professional bout but was an elite amateur beforehand.
Paul accepted the challenge and suddenly Clarke found his inboxes on social media full of fans pleading with him to beat up the social media sensation.
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He told SunSport: “Everyone that’s trying to message me, I tried to reply to so many people, but I just gave up in the end.
“It’s like, ‘Please take this Jake Paul fight’. One of them said, ‘Do us a favour and take him down a couple pegs’.
“Another guy said, ‘Don’t even knock him out, just play with him’.”
Paul has had just five pro bouts, all wins with four knockouts, but is yet to face a recognised boxer.
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So Clarke, who beat Toni Visic on his debut in February, would provide a gigantic step up in class.
But the cruiserweight prospect is ready to give Paul the chance to answer the critics who have so far slammed his boxing career and skills.
Clarke, 31, said: “He’s been training, so we have to give him that respect.
“And by fighting someone like myself, we’ll see what he’s learned, won’t we?”
“He’s got two eyes, two hands, two legs, just like myself, so it’s fair. As I said, he’s been training so we don’t know technically what he’s learnt.
“We’ve got to give him a fair crack at the whip.”
Paul, 25, is set to return on August 13 following rumoured talks with Tommy Fury, 22, who pulled out of their celebrity bout in December.
Meanwhile Clarke fights next Saturday on the undercard of his friend Joshua Buatsi, 29, who headlines against Craig Richards, 29.
Buatsi was one of the standouts from the 2016 Rio Olympics cycle and on the brink of a world title shot.
Whereas former Team GB training partner Lawrence Okolie, 29, won gold after just 16 cruiserweight bouts.
Clarke refuses to be rushed or compared to other Olympic alumni, choosing to follow in his own path, not copy others.
He said: “I want to go at the pace that’s right for me.
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“People say about being fast tracked and this and that. I don’t know about all of that, I just take the fights as they come.
“I know that I’m not worried about anybody on the scene, I’ll fight anybody, Eddie just needs to line them up and I’ll take them out.”
