Things you didn’t know about Jake Paul’s next opponent, Ryan Bourland
‘The Problem Child’ Jake Paul (8-1, 5KO) fights for the first time this year on March 2 in Puerto Rico against Ryan Bourland (17-2, 6KO).
The cruiserweights clash over eight-rounds on the Amanda Serrano-Nina Meinke world featherweight unification championship showdown Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, live on DAZN.
Paul has bounced back with a brace of wins since his sole defeat to Tommy Fury in February 2023, and now he aims to make it a hattrick as he prepares for his 10th bout.
YouTuber-turned-boxer, Jake Paul, has 26 million followers on Instagram alone, plus 20 million on YouTube, the platform he first made his fame on fortune on, whereas his forthcoming foe has less than 2,000 followers on social media… so who is he? BBN found out a whole host of facts about the man below:
Ryan Thomas Bourland
Ryan Thomas Bourland was born on June 17, 1988 in Martinez, California, United States.
He admits to being a troublemaker when he was a youngster growing up in Vallejo. Because he was always getting into fights, so his parents took him to a boxing gym when he was in sixth grade, around 11-years-old.
When his parents divorced when he was 14, he started dropping out of boxing and got back into trouble, until he met his amateur coach who gave him focus and kept him in the gym. He even admits to being “in and out of jail” as a youngster and credits boxing for saving his life.
His boxing alias is ‘Rhino’.
He is managed by Marlon Diaz of 2 The Top Boxing.
As an amateur, he was a Golden Gloves champion and also fought in the National Junior Olympics.
He turned pro aged 25 in October 2013, winning via second-round TKO in nearby Sacramento.
His first fight against a winning opponent, in July 2015, when he was 7-0, he was KO’d heavily in the first round. Heavy-handed Israel Duffus knocked him out within two minutes, and now has 17 KOs from 20 wins. British boxing fans will remember him from his fight with Cheavon Clarke in February 2023, where he went down four times but still made it to the final bell over 10 rounds.
He was defeated again, on a mixed decision over eight-rounds, in February 2018, by Jose Hernandez, but he valiantly came back to get his revenge eight months later in October to win the rematch via another mixed decision, this time over 10-rounds.
Despite winning the GBO light-heavyweight title, a broke Bourland retired from boxing at the end of 2018, having not earned enough money from the sport. He confesses to quitting full-time jobs to concentrate on his boxing career, but has still had to work part-time to supplement his income.
“Boxing is not easy,” Bourland told Daily Democrat back in October 2018. “Taking punches isn’t the most fun thing to do and I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I’m not making that much money. I haven’t had health insurance for a while. I’ve done a lot in this sport and it’s just time to get a job and get some benefits. I’ve had cuts in training and there’s actually a doctor that I train and he’d help me out with things. It was always scary because if something serious happened, I might have been in trouble.”
He began to work on the North Dakota oil rigs, knowing he could earn more money than in boxing. He said, “It’s dangerous and hard work, but boxing is dangerous and is really hard work. After they saw my resume, I got a couple of calls and they told me ‘You are exactly what we are looking for.’ My dad told me, ‘You’re crazy. You know how cold it is up there?’ So I went out and bought a bunch of thermals and stuff like that so hopefully I will be prepared. I got a call about fighting for a belt in Las Vegas, but it’s only for about $10,000. By the time I pay my team and train for two months, it’s not that much.”
His retirement from boxing lasted just under four years.
Bourland’s last fight resulted in a fifth-round TKO over Santario Martin in September 2022, so he hasn’t fought for 18 months.
Predictions
Tim RicksonBBN Editor: Bourland is not heavy handed, so he will have next to zero chance of scoring a knockout against Paul. He can catch opponents with a big shot to grab their attention, but he is unable to finish them off due to his lack of power.
He likes to go on the front foot but he is overly aggressive and wide open, unbalanced and falling over his front foot, so Paul just has to sit back, take his time, download enough data to predict the best shots to use, then he can load up and score another stunning knockout.
Against Israel Duffus, Bourland kept throwing lazy, very slow jabs, which didn’t come back to his head quick enough and resulted in Duffus countering easily with a crunching overhand right that knocked him out cold while he was still on his feet.
Jake Paul should KO Bourland very early on in the fight.