YouTuber star Jake Paul says he thinks there’s a realistic chance that UFC star Conor McGregor will agree to face him in a boxing match.
Paul, 24, has been trying to lure McGregor into fighting him since last year for a potential mega-fight that would make them both a huge amount of money.
Jake says his fight with the 32-year-old McGregor could come down to how the Irish start does in his rematch with former UFC lightweight champion Dustin Poirier on July 10th at UFC 264.
If McGregor wins that fight, the chances of him agreeing to face Jake in a boxing match will increase. McGregor, however, didn’t perform well in his previous fight against Poirier, getting stopped by a second-round technical knockout last January at UFC 257.
Jake looked sensational in his third professional boxing match last month, destroying former UFC star Ben Askren by a lightning-quick first-round knockout on Triller pay-per-view in Atlanta.
Askren, 36, looked like he didn’t know what hit him after getting flattened by a sledgehammer right hand from Jake. Although the potbellied Askren got back to his feet, he wasn’t with it, and the referee quickly stopped the fight rather than allowing Jake to finish him with the coup de grace.
Jake said afterward that the event brought in a huge 1.5 million pay-per-view buys and generated a massive $65 million. His take for the fight is a reported $10 million, which isn’t bad for a match that lasted less than one full round.
If Jake can see pure McGregor into fighting him, he’ll likely make well above the $10M he netted for the Askren match.
“Potentially, it’s very, very realistic for sure,” said Jake Paul to The Sun about a boxing match between him and Conor McGregor.
“I think it depends on how he does against Dustin on July 10,” Jake continued. “I’m more talked about than Conor McGregor at this moment.
“Kamaru Usman is going back and forth on Twitter with McGregor, and the tweets are getting a lot of engagement.
“But then he tweets about me, and it’s one of his number one tweets ever,” said Jake.
Initially, Usman seemed interested in fighting Jake Paul in a boxing match but then appeared to back off entirely. Is it because Usman saw a replay of Jake’s knockout of Askren and thought better of it?
It could be Although Usman has excellent stand-up skills, he doesn’t possess the type of power that Jake has ging for him, and he might fall apart once he starts eating right hands from him.
Losing to Jake by a knockout would really hurt Usman’s career in the UFC, and he might not be able to come back from a loss like that.
“I’ve had two highlight knockouts in a row on two massive pay-per-views,” said Jake. “I’m just letting the numbers speak right now.”
“There’s just more buzz around my name right now, and Conor just got knocked out, had one of the most embarrassing losses of his career,”
Jake has knocked out his first three opponents for his fledgling pro boxing career, and none of them have made it to the third round against him.
Paul’s wins as a pro:
- Ben Askren – 1st round TKO
- Nate Robinson – 2nd round KO
- AnEsonGib – 1st round KO
McGregor fought boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2017 and was stopped in the 10th round in an entertaining fight in Las Vegas. The match brought in 4.3 million pay-per-view buys and gave McGregor his biggest career payday.
Recently, McGregor’s name was mentioned as a possible opponent for former eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, but that fight failed to materialize after Conor’s loss to Poirier.