Jake Paul smirked.
He’d just been asked for a final prediction for his Friday night fight against Andre August in Orlando, Florida, in a bout that will be livestreamed by DAZN.
“Well, I just think it’s funny, like, the peanut gallery is laughing,’’ Paul said Wednesday, shifting his gaze from the audience at the press conference to his opponent. “’Does your coach tell you that I dropped him in sparring too? Or did he not tell you?’’
A man sitting in the audience began yelling at Paul.
“See,’’ Paul said, “he’s getting all worked up because he knows what happened.''
So, what exactly happened?
For starters, the man yelling was Justin Deshone. He is August’s coach and trainer, and in the summer of 2022 he also worked as a sparring partner for Paul.
“I’m going to be all the way honest about it,’’ Deshone told USA TODAY Sports Thursday. “In the sport of boxing, if your glove touches the ground, it’s a knockdown, right? So, yeah, that happened. …
“Jake caught me while I was throwing (a punch). I wasn’t hurt or anything. My glove touched the canvas. I had to jump back up, get myself together and get right back on his ass.
“Jake is a tough kid.’’
There’s a reason you’ve probably never heard of him.
Deshone, who also goes by Justin Williams, is 6-13-2 as a professional boxer, according to BoxRec.com.
But he did win his last two fights by knockout and he was in August’s corner for August’s last fight, a victory over Brandon Martin by unanimous decision.
Deshone, 35, said he agreed to spar with Paul in the summer of 2022 after getting a call from Paul’s trainer, Danny Smith.
At the time, Paul was getting ready for a fight with Tommy Fury that fell through and then was preparing for another bout that did not materialize, according to Deshone.
“Jake glorifies sparring, but doesn’t even know what sparring is really for,’’ Deshone said. “Sparring is to learn. You know, I was really out there just trying to help him. That’s why his coach had called me and ask me to come down there and help him. And it got to times where it was, ‘Hey, man, dial it back a little bit. You’re kind of hitting him too hard.’”
But apparently Paul was holding his own before the knockdown?
“It happened, bro,’’ Deshone said.
Clearly, Paul was calling into question the wisdom of August being coached by a guy who Paul knocked down. "And that was two years ago when I wasn't (expletive)."
Deshone barked back at Paul during the press conference.
But on Thursday, he said he had no hard feelings.
“No, not at all,’’ Deshone said. “He has to do what he has to do to sell a fight. Whatever. Cool. If it makes my family some money, I’m happy. Whatever. You can say whatever you want.’’
