Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold shared his thoughts on Jake Paul, saying “he’s not a real fighter. He’s a tough kid.”

Paul has become one of the bigger names in combat sports over the last few years. The YouTuber-turner-boxer has turned heads with a 4-0 professional boxing record, which includes back-to-back wins over former UFC fighters Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren. Still, not everyone is sold on him becoming some sort of champion boxer or MMA fighter. If you ask Rockhold, while there’s a lot to like about Paul, he’s still a very flawed fighter.

Speaking to DC & RC, Rockhold shared his very honest thoughts on Paul. He also had some words to say about the sport of boxing, calling it a “dumbed-down version of fighting.”

“Jake’s tough. Real in what sense? Real, he’s not a professional boxer. He’s a tough kid, and he showed he can withstand and take some shots and keep going,” Rockhold said (h/t MiddleEasy). “If anything, he’s a decent boxer. Fighting’s different. Boxing is not fighting, we all have to identify that. You put on gloves onto two guys, to dumb down their version of combative skills to overcome each other, to perform. Boxing is not fighting. Boxing is a performance, it’s a dumbed-down version of fighting. He’s not a real fighter, no he’s not a real fighter. If he wants to be a real fighter he can step in the game with four-ounce gloves and we can do business, but that’s not the case.”

It seems like Rockhold doesn’t believe that boxing is that difficult of a sport when compared to MMA. While he certainly has a point that there are more components in MMA, boxing is still a very difficult sport to achieve success in, and Paul has looked good. Still, it’s nice to see Rockhold giving credit to Paul for displaying a good chin so far in his career.

Do you agree with what Luke Rockhold said about Jake Paul?