YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul is opening up about boxing-related brain injuries.
Speaking with interviewer Graham Bensinger before his Saturday match-up against Tyron Woodley, Paul explained his history with concussions. And while he’s gotten them before from playing football as a kid, it’s the most recent brain injuries that are impacting his speech, mood, and memory, he shares.
“I notice it in conversations with my girlfriend and her friends, like, not remembering something that I should be able to remember that happened a couple days ago,” Paul said. “Sometimes in my speech, where like every hundredth or two hundredth word, I’ll mess up or, like, slur. Which I didn’t do that before.”
Paul, who says he has suffered from 20 to 30 concussions, explained that he’s talked to “tons and tons” of people about treating such injuries, combating it with “new research and science” and “psychedelics.” Also in the interview, he spoke at length about his decision to not have sex before a fight, saying that it’s “100%” not in his head.
“I don’t believe in placebo,” Paul shared. “I have to experience things for myself… It’s night and day. I’ve only messed up on occasion, once or twice because it’s noticeably different and I take more punishment in sparring if I do that. And my coach, BJ, would be like, ‘Did you have sex last night?’”
Earlier this year, Paul was accused of sexual assault by TikTokker Justine Paradise, who claims he forced her to perform oral sex at Paul’s house in California. Bensinger asked Paul about the allegations, to which he said it was a “smear on my name for the rest of my life” and called it “fabricated.”
You can watch part of Paul’s interview up above.
