Jake Paul knocked out Anderson Silva en route to an eventful points victory

The controversial YouTuber-turned-fighter overcame his toughest test yet in the sport in Arizona on Saturday night, going toe-to-toe with the UFC icon and knocking him down with a ferocious combination in the eighth and final round before securing a deserved victory by unanimous decision with scores of 77-74, 78-73 and 78-73.

A tough win for Paul follows back-to-back triumphs over other former MMA stars in Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren, moving him to 6-0 as he mounts confident challenges to both free agent Nate Diaz and the undisputed world super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.

“I want Nate Diaz who is ab*h,” Paul said. “He tried to get into my dressing room, he tried to cause some f**k.

“Then he always leaves the fucking arena. So, Nate Diaz, stop f***ing and fight me. And Canelo, you too. You too Canelo.

“You said you can’t beat a striker, you can’t beat a legend like Anderson Silva. I just did it. So why can’t I beat Canelo? Fuck you all.”

On Saturday’s undercard, teenage lightweight sensation Ashton ‘H20’ Silve continued his impressive knockout record and improved to 8-0 with a devastating one-punch stoppage of Braulio ‘El Chavo’ Rodriguez, who was stopped with a crushing counter left hook in jaw in his first fight of 2019.

Alexandro Santiago forced the retirement of Antonio Nieves after the seventh round of their bantamweight encounter, while former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell was outclassed by former UFC middleweight Uriah Hall.

Another professional boxing debutant, doctor and well-known YouTube star and social media influencer, Mikhail “Doctor Mike” Varshavsky, was comfortably defeated by another former MMA fighter in Chris Avila.

Preliminary action saw wins for local favorites Danny Barrios Flores and Adrian Rodriguez, plus heavyweight Jeremiah Milton and Anderson Silva’s training partner, Eliezer Silva.