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Ahead of Jake Paul's much-anticipated boxing showdown against Tyron Woodley, Georges St-Pierre's coach Firas Zahabi claimed that the YouTuber-turned-boxer could well be using PEDs.
Paul immediately dismissed Zahabi's statements, saying that he took the famed MMA trainer's words as a compliment.
In a recent interview on the More Plates More Dates YouTube channel, Zahabi clarified why he accused Jake Paul of using PEDs in the first place.
"Why do I say some guys are on PEDs and some guys are not? What's the difference? I always look at the broad picture. I don't just look at one thing, okay the guy has got a pimple, he is on PED. No. In my opinion, that's now how it's done. You have to look at the training history. Go look back. If the guy had a major leap in his ability, not skill necessarily but ability, then that's very suspect."
Using Francis Ngannou and Conor McGregor as an example to prove his point, Zahabi said the two UFC superstars have a natural flair for combat that was evident in their first few fights in the promotion.
They embellished their "god-given" talent and eventually went onto become world champions. However, Zahabi doubts if he can make the same case for Jake Paul.
"Look at Jake Paul's first fight, which was three years ago. He looks very novice, his athletic ability is good, it's not great. It's not something that sticks out. His mechanics are off but that could be fixed. Thunderous power? It's a talent. Sprinting coaches have the best saying, they say 'we can't make you fast, we can make you faster'. You have to be really, really fast already and then we can give you a skill that makes you faster. Power is a similar thing...When you see an amateur fighter three years ago, doesn't have the punching power, doesn't have great skill, and then fast forward, in just such a short period of time in three years of training, all of a sudden he's much bigger, much thicker, and he has got thunderous power," said Zahabi.
Zahabi added that he's trained a countless number of fighters as the head coach of Tristar Gym, and many of them consumed banned substances to enhance their performance, while many didn't.
Fighters who showed immense growth in a short period of time were the ones who used PEDs, concluded Zahabi.
Watch Zahabi talking about Paul in the video below (from 1:30):
What happened in Jake Paul's first boxing fight?
Jake Paul's first boxing fight was against fellow YouTuber, Deji. Challenging the Englishman in an amateur bout, Paul defeated him via TKO in the fifth round.
As Firas Zahabi mentioned, 'The Problem Child' was clearly new to boxing, simply because of a lack of prior training.
Watch the full fight below:
