Conspiracy alert! Viral TikTok suggests Anderson Silva took a dive against Jake Paul

Jake Paul did the unthinkable on Saturday night at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The YouTuber turned boxer beat Anderson Silva via unanimous decision, even knocking down the middleweight GOAT in the 8th round to seal the deal. It was another bitter pill Paul forced MMA fans to swallow. And it seems like some are refusing to accept that Jake beat Anderson fair and square.

Allegations of fight fixing and taking a dive arise whenever an event gets big enough to capture the attention of the mainstream. People accused Ben Askren of taking a dive against Paul. They did the same when Paul knocked out Tyron Woodley in their second fight. And now there’s a grand conspiracy going around that Anderson Silva fell to the canvas off a phantom punch in the 8th round.

According to many who don’t follow combat sports closely, Silva clearly ‘took the bag’ and let Jake Paul win. The proof of this villainy comes via a low resolution video of the fight shot from outside of the ring. It shows the key moment in the 8th round where Jake Paul hits Anderson Silva with a short left before unloading on him with a big right hook that drops ‘The Spider.’

Slowed down, it almost looks like the right hook misses Anderson’s jaw. Clear evidence that he took a dive?

Anderson took the bag 💰 pic.twitter.com/iCpHkPcGyB

— RW_MMA🇧🇷x🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@RW805_) October 30, 2022

Of course, multiple high definition clips exist from the broadcast showing the right hook that dropped Silva from other angles. All these shots make it 100% clear that Paul’s punch landed flush upside Anderson’s face.

🚨Jake Paul🇺🇸 l'a emporté face à Anderson Silva🇧🇷 sur décision unanime et l'a même knockdown ! #PaulSilva pic.twitter.com/84jtARLVBA

— MMA EMPIRE ⚔️ (@LempireMMA) October 30, 2022

They say a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth even puts its shoes on. And that seems to be the case here. Just one post of the TikTok video alleging Anderson Silva took a dive has been watched on Twitter over three million times. It’s been copied hundreds of times and spread across the internet, with casual viewers buying into the narrative that Anderson Silva threw his fight against Jake Paul.

As long-time Anderson Silva fans, we’d love to be able to say there’s no way ‘The Spider’ lost legitimately to Jake Paul. But that’s just not the case. Jake Paul won the fight 78-73, 78-73, and 77-74 on the judges’ scorecards. Even without the 10-8 round in the 8th, Paul would have beaten Silva. As much as it pains us to say it, Jake Paul beat Anderson Silva on Saturday night. And he did it without any sort of cheating or trickery.

What do you think, PENN Nation? Are there reasons to be suspicious of Jake Paul’s latest win? Or are Paul’s haters just unable to accept he could beat Silva? Let us know in the comments!