Jake Paul has shown how it's done, so I'm calling Tyson Fury out to end retirement and fight

I’m going to scream this from the mountaintop, so everyone, including the former champion, hears it:If Tyson Fury comes out of retirement, I want to be his first opponent. Yeah, he’s 6-9, a two-time heavyweight champion and a future Hall of Famer.

So what? If he comes back, I’m knocking him out.

You heard it here first.

And if he’s afraid, well, if undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue is looking for a fight, he’s got one. And he’s going down.

There.

I did it.

Once you stop laughing and pull yourself off the floor, let’s chat. 

That’s basically what social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul has been doing for the last five years or so.

In the last month, he’s been linked to fights with a lightweight, a super middleweight and a heavyweight, guys who in their last bouts had a spread of 119 1/2 pounds between them.

I suppose you can’t put anything past Paul, who on Nov. 15 fought a 58-year-old Mike Tyson in front of more than 70,000 in AT&T Stadium and which drew a global audience of 65 million households on Netflix.

That means roughly 100 million people watched. Those are Super Bowl numbers.

So he’s not doing this just to be a wise guy.

There’s big money in it, and he nearly got a nine-figure payday versus Canelo Alvarez before Turki Alalshikh swooped in at the last month to sign Alvarez and secure the Terence Crawford match.

Paul is the first fighter in history whose weight class depends on his opponent’s ability to generate huge revenues.

On Thursday, veteran boxing journalist Dan Rafael reported Paul was in talks with Davis’ team for a fight before Davis’ stunning March 1 draw with Lamont Roach. Later that day, Paul took things even further, saying on his podcast that he wanted to fight former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

Dana White wants to cut back boxing's weight classes but Paul wants to obliterate them for good.

It’s time to take a step back here and look at what these four men weighed in their last bouts:

• Davis 133 3/4 on March 1 versus Roach.

• Paul 227 1/4 on Nov. 15 versus Tyson.

• Joshua 252 1/4 on Sept. 21 versus Daniel Dubois.

• Alvarez 166 3/4 on Sept. 14 versus Edgar Berlanga.

As horrific as some boxing commissions are in the U.S. — Yeah, we’re looking at you, Texas — it’s almost unthinkable that any commission would sanction Davis versus Paul.

Of course, Nevada once sanctioned an all-time boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather, against a guy making his pro debut (Conor McGregor) for no reason other than it would sell, so I would never rule anything out.

Paul’s already won since he’s got boxing fans talking, even if these fights never happen. He’s in the conversation at a time of flux in the industry, and his name is alongside a few of its greatest stars.

For a guy whose real business is marketing, this is a six-run grand slam. It’s something that shouldn’t exist, but somehow, here we are talking about it.

If you can fog a mirror and move the needle, be prepared for Paul to call you out.

He’s not much different than David Copperfield. Copperfield actually did not make the Statue of Liberty disappear, nor did he levitate over the Grand Canyon or walk through the Great Wall of China.

People who were watching live, though, would swear he did.

Paul’s an illusionist. He’s improved, but against a real contender, he’d get broken down and beaten like a drum. Paul versus Joshua is about as competitive as The Rock versus The Brooklyn Brawler.

Paul has improved and is no longer just a sideshow. He’s a middle-of-the-road guy with a decent jab and some pop, but put him in with a legitimate contender and he’d get walked down like he was late with the rent.

Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn, ever the carnival huckster, said he called Joshua about it. Hearn claimed Joshua said, “Of course I’d fight him.”

Did that call actually happen? Who knows? But Hearn then explained why a fighter of Joshua’s caliber would even entertain such a joke:

“Listen, Jake creates massive events,” Hearn said. “You know that’s going to create unbelievable viewership and, no disrespect to Jake Paul, it’s a straightforward night’s work.”

Paul is to championship-level boxers what Mario Mendoza was to batting champions.

But he sells the idea. He creates spectacles. He generates money.

As a result, he gets fights against opponents he has no business being in with and he continually elevates his brand.

Boxing is a sport, but Paul treats it like Broadway. And so far, the house is still full.

Fury’s probably not going to respond to my callout, the big chicken.

But if Paul calls him out? Bet on it. Fury knows how this game is played. And by now, we should all know it, too.