Jake Paul has a decision to make

Jake Paul has a 4-0 record as a professional fighter after a split decision victory over Tyron Woodley, the former UFC welterweight champion, at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland on Sunday. It was a relatively convincing win, despite one judge’s scorecard, but it wasn’t a knockout like Paul’s three previous professional bouts. The fight went the distance, eight rounds, when Paul had not gone over four minutes in any of his previous three fights.

Paul and his team had a plan for this fight, but the events of Sunday night make the next step a little less clear than it has been to this point in Paul’s boxing adventure.

Figuring out what makes the most sense for Paul’s next fight won’t be an easy decision. After the knockouts of Nate Robinson and Ben Askren, it was pretty obvious that Paul needed a big step up in competition. After this one? That’s not so clear.

If Woodley gets that “I love Jake Paul” tattoo, maybe a rematch is next. Or if pay-per-view buys come back in a big way from the UK, Tommy Fury could be in the mix.

The pressure remains on the polarizing YouTuber to fight legitimate opponents: real boxers. Paul and his team have to raise the level of opposition to maintain intrigue and fan interest, yet find a way to protect Paul from taking too big a leap and risk mortgaging his drawing power.

And, of course, whoever Paul’s next foe is, it has to be someone who can bring in an audience.

“[The next opponent should be] someone who has the ability to make people believe he can beat Jake Paul,” Paul’s top advisor, Nakisa Bidarian, told ESPN after the Woodley fight. “He’s at a level now where he can’t have easy fights. Every fight has to elevate given the kind of attention he draws, given the pay-per-view box office power he has and the relationship he has with Showtime. We love, love, love fighting MMA opponents. Not because they’re easy, because they’re not. Tonight proved that. But it involves two different segments of the population.”

Subsequently, Paul himself gave his performance a C-minus rating, which could open the door to a rematch with Woodley. In the ring during post-fight interviews, Paul and Woodley appeared to make a deal that if Woodley got a tattoo that said “I love Jake Paul,” there would be a rematch. Interestingly, the loser was supposed to get that tattoo anyway. At the post-fight press conference, Woodley said he believed a rematch would be like a basketball dunk. But Paul and Bidarian said they would only consider a second fight if Woodley gets the tattoo.

“Get the tattoo, then we’ll consider it,” Bidarian said. “The longer you wait to get the tattoo, the less likely you’re going to get the chance to fight me again,” Jake said. Because you’re not taking it seriously.

“[Paul is] happy he won, but he’s not happy with the way he won. He wanted to prove that he has that knockout power against Tyron Woodley. So, I think he has an interest in doing it again. ‘I’ll see.”

Then there’s Fury, who was listed on this billboard specifically as a potential next opponent for Paul. But Fury was unimpressive in a four-round unanimous decision win over Anthony Taylor, an undersized MMA fighter who is a training partner for Paul. In the hallway after the fight, Fury and Paul got into a verbal altercation that almost turned physical.

However, Fury seems to have fallen out of favor with Team Paul due to his performance against Taylor. Bidarian said it will come down to Fury’s selling power in the U.K., where he is a star courtesy of his family (he is the half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson) and his appearance on the reality show “Love Island.”

“He didn’t prove to be as capable as people think he is,” Bidarian said of Fury. “If he’s the fighter [Paul] has to face, it’s an easy conversation. But it only makes sense for Jake Paul, who is one of the highest paid boxers in the world, if we think he can push the numbers.”

One thing Bidarian can guarantee, he said, is that Paul is fully committed to boxing. There was some skepticism about that immediately after the fight when Paul talked about taking time off, getting a haircut and fixing his “crooked nose” and “crooked teeth.” Bidarian said Paul has told his team to come back and be ready for training camp on September 13 and that the “original goal” was to fight again before the end of the year.