Jake Paul fought Ben Askren on Saturday night in the Internet famous MMA fighter’s latest attempt at relevancy in combat sports. But before that happened, Pete Davidson stole the show in the pre-fight leadup and had some pretty biting commentary about the spectacle that followed.
With Saturday Night Live off for a few weeks, Davidson was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the big fight. He first showed up hanging out with Snoop Dogg, but later served as what essentially was a backstage reporter for the fight.
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And while he didn’t have much insight or show many things behind the scenes of the venue, he sure had plenty to say. Including that both fighters “suck” and a very bleak summation of Paul’s fighting career in general.
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“You can tell how professional this event is by them having me here,” Davidson said, walking through the bowels of the football stadium while a camera followed. “We are backstage at Jake Paul’s dressing room. Locker room, if you wanna call it that.
“Today is a wild day for boxing because it shows how low it truly sunk,” Davidson continued. “I think today proves the fact that if you have enough followers, you can truly f*cking do whatever you want. Maybe PewDiePie will cure cancer and Charli D’Amelio will become a surgeon.”
Davidson was referencing some other internet famous celebrities presumably doing something more constructive with their fame, essentially taking another swipe at the SNL star for deciding on this career pivot. He then broke down the fight, which he framed as a battle between two bad fighters, one of which is famous and the other he called anonymous in several ways.
“Tonight we have a fight between Ben Askren, who I don’t even know who that is, still, and I’ve been reading up on him all week,” Davidson said. “And, you know, they both suck but, you know, at least somebody’s gonna get hurt.”
It’s a pretty blunt assessment for a fight that people paid to watch, and aside from the video that circulated online basically anyone hearing Davidson’s words spent good money to see it. But whoever decided to put him on camera for this had to know what was coming here, asking a comedian to play sideline reporter.
“And now back to you guys in the booth, some real announcers over there,” Davidson concluded.
