Jake Paul showed some genuine boxing skills in his 6th-round TKO of Mike Perry. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
At some point we’re going to have to consider the possibility that Jake Paul might be a genuinely good boxer. We don’t have to like it, but we do need to be honest with ourselves about it.

That beating he put on Mike Perry on Saturday night? That’s not something just anyone off the street can do. Even with the advantage of being a weight class or two bigger come fight night, you still have to have some legit skill to piece up and put away an experienced fighter like Perry. It’s not easy to come to terms with the fact that some Disney kid YouTuber salted Perry away in six rounds and made it look easy, but we can’t run from reality forever.

Thing is, there’s a downside to proving that you’re not just some obnoxious tourist. Because once we accept that you can really fight, then we’ll want to see you in real fights. What we’ll get a lot less excited to see is you thumping on the nearly 60-year-old carcass of a boxing great.

Paul still wants that fight with Mike Tyson. He said so on Saturday night, right around the same time he called out UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira. The current plan is to do Paul versus Tyson in November, assuming Tyson doesn’t have any further health issues like the ones that forced him to pull out of this summer’s planned bout on Netflix.

But after seeing Paul dust a bare-knuckle boxer in his prime, are we really still going to go through with a fight that seemed borderline unsanctionable before Tyson’s most recent health woes? Not only does it seem like a bad idea for the guy who’s closing in on social security, it also seems like it’s just a waste of time.

The version of Paul we saw Saturday night could genuinely hurt the current iteration of Tyson. He probably won’t, since all the fight-to-the-death talk these two were throwing around in news conferences was clearly meant to mask the fact that they’re actually pretty friendly. What they’ll probably do instead is have a glorified sparring session that makes everyone who watches it feel like the rube at the carnival, and they’ll probably both earn a ton of money in the process.

But wouldn’t we rather see Paul do something else, something worthwhile? If he’s going to be out here developing into a good boxer right before our eyes, wouldn’t it be more fun to see him test those skills against other good and possibly even age-appropriate boxers?

For instance, consider his callout of Pereira. Obviously, “Poatan’s” UFC contract is a huge obstacle to making that fight a reality, but just think about how much more compelling it would be. Imagine seeing Paul in a fight where it’s his health we’re concerned about and not the other guy’s. Imagine him being dwarfed by Pereira on the weigh-in stage, then summoning every last ounce of courage as he stands in the ring and watches the UFC champ shoot imaginary arrows at him during his walkout.

That would be impressive. It would also be quality entertainment, one way or another. And if we can’t get Pereira, we can settle for someone similarly dangerous who doesn’t have a UFC-shaped barrier standing between him and the payday.

Because one thing we know about Paul is that he’s very capable of hyping a fight. The first few years of his career were almost nothing but that, since the fights he picked for himself were intentionally not all that competitive. Now that he’s got some actual skills along with the begrudging respect of (at least some of) the haters, why not test them for real?

The answer, of course, is money. Boxing Tyson will bring in lots of it, in part because Tyson is still the terrifying eater of hearts to a lot of people who remember his glory days and don’t know how time works. There’s a reason Netflix was interested in that fight but not the Perry one. The Tyson name still has a lot of value, and it’s the name more than the man that Paul would really be fighting.

Still, we can’t think of anything better for him to do? It’s fine to spend your days in celebrity influencer-style clout fights when that’s all you’re good for. But once you’ve shown that you can actually box, it seems like a waste not to do it against other people who are out to prove the same.