Jake Paul is legitimately interested in testing himself in MMA one day in the future, but it’s highly unlikely anybody is going to lure him into the cage before he’s ready.
Well, that’s unless some promoter is ready to put up a whole lot of money that would convince the 25-year-old undefeated fighter to abandon his plans for the sport of boxing in order to focus on MMA right now.
“There’s [interest to do MMA] but not in the immediate future, but in the long term,” Paul said on The MMA Hour . “I would have to practice my kicks for two or three years and maybe two-and-a-half years on the jiu jitsu side before I could do that.
“Unless the money was really right but no one’s brought anything to the table that’s interesting enough.”
Retired UFC lightweight champion Khabib Numagomedov stated that he actually approached Paul’s team to inquire about bringing “The Problem Child”, his promotion at Eagle FC.
According to Paul, there is no such offer and it’s unlikely Nurmagomedov has the funds to pay him.
“Khabib [Nurmagomedov] claimed that they offered Paul a deal. Paul denied it. They never offered anything to me. Eagle FC has never hosted an event. Although I don’t hate anything about them, I think I need to make more in boxing before I can risk my life going into MMA.
“People would have to come $25, $35 million dollars to just start the conversation with me.”
If competing in MMA actually becomes a reality, Paul added that he would welcome the chance to compete against somebody like Nurmagomedov because he knows that would be a fight that would generate huge interest and a whole lot of revenue as well.
Of course, Nurmagomedov is retired and he still remains under contract with the UFC if he ever decided to fight again but Paul is still interested if it’s something the undefeated Russian would want to pursue.
“I would fight Khabib in MMA if they wanted to make that offer,” Paul said. It would be thrilling. This would be exciting, particularly if there was more time for training.
“That would be a massive fight. Probably a million, 2 million pay-per-view buys and all I would have to do is work on my wrestling skills. Cause I could outstrike him standing up.”
While it seems highly unlikely that Paul will be facing Nurmagomedov or anybody else in MMA in the relatively near future, he’s still very much undecided on what comes next in his boxing career.
After his defeat to Tyron Woodley, former UFC champion, Paul took time out from the gym but has not been back in since. After a busy 2021 that saw him fight 3 times.
Perhaps the biggest problem Paul faces right now is finding a worthwhile opponent that will draw him back into another training camp, which would also pull his focus away from various business ventures that are keeping him plenty busy in the interim.
“There’s a lot going on in other aspects of my life,” Paul said. To help promote Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, I will be holding press conferences in the coming weeks. In addition to that, my venture capital fund is occupying me with business matters. So I haven’t even gotten back into the gym or been training at all. I need to have a discussion with my coaches but probably I would say August-September maybe. Maybe later.
“I’m trying to figure it out. Obviously if the stars align in some sort of way or I have a change of heart, then things can obviously move around but right now I don’t feel like that motivated to just go right back into another training camp.”
One name who has drawn interest as a potential opponent for Paul is former UFC champion Anderson Silva after he earned a split decision win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and then demolished UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz inside one round to go 2-0 in boxing last year.
“Yes. I’d love to see that fight,” Paul replied when asked about Silva. “Interesting story, I think he was the first celebrity I ever saw. My dad loved MMA and went along with me to a local MMA show. Anderson Silva was there, so it must have paid for him to attend.
” I asked him for his autograph, and we had a photo taken together. I’m maybe like 12 years old but I think he was the first celebrity that I met. It would be great to fight someone that was my first idol .”
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Paul mentions Chavez Jr. when it comes to experienced boxers but the truth is that there are fewer.
“There’s really no boxers who have a big enough name to make it an interesting enough event that are really near my weight class or experience level,” Paul said. “It would basically be like fighting for the world title would be the only fight that would sell and I don’t even know who the cruiserweight champion is.
” I think Canelo [Alvarez] was meant to fight [Ilunga Makabu], but that just doesn’t make sense. It’s my sixth fight and this guy’s a world champion. Nobody is bigger than Chavez Jr in boxing.
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