Jake Paul’s plan to fight UFC star Conor McGregor suffers serious blow

UFC president Dana White has ruled out allowing his stars to fight Jake Paul – dealing the YouTube star a blow as he purses bouts with Nate Diaz, Kamaru Usman and Conor McGregor are now off the table.

Paul, 24, has been feuding with UFC President White, 51, as well as a number of top fighters, since beating Ben Askren last month.

The MMA boss had claimed on a podcast with boxing stars Mike Tyson and Zab Judah that he would be willing to bet $1 million on the former Olympian to finish 3-0 (3 KOs) Paul, but has since walked that back.

And in a new interview with ESPN, White poured cold water on Paul’s ambitions to keep doing crossover fights with some of his biggest stars.

He said: “You can’t deny that this kid has inserted himself into the conversation with real guys… He’s got three fights!

“I would never do business with those guys [Jake and Logan Paul]. We’re going to loan them a guy? For what?

“There are plenty of goofballs out there that you can muster up to get in there and play the games these guys are playing, I’m not your guy.”

White also cast doubt over the legitimacy of Paul’s first round TKO victory over Askren in Atlanta, saying that he struggled to ‘wrap his brain around’ the result.

Askren, who retired from MMA in 2019 and had hip surgery seven months prior to his fight with the social media sensation, was under contract to the UFC when the bout was initially being discussed, and was allowed to compete by the promotion.

But he refused to speculate on when the YouTube boxing trend will finally finish, and implored fans of the spectacles to watch them if they enjoy that brand of entertainment.

“I’m never going to tell people not to watch anything,” White said. “There’s a certain appetite out there for some things, but it’s just not my thing.

“That’s not to say that we haven’t done some stuff that was, you know, whatever.

“I like fighting the best in the world, cultivating talent, seeing who can climb up the ranks and become world champion… That’s what I do!

“Anybody who wants to watch that other stuff, look, it’s your money.”

Paul had previously angled for a fight with Diaz, who returns to the cage after almost two years at UFC 263 against Britain’s Leon Edwards.

Paul planned to use victory over Diaz to catapult him into a bout with two-weight world champion McGregor.

But with that fight seemingly off the table, the Ohio native will have to turn his attention to other challenges for his next bout.

Bellator’s Dillon Danis – who trains with Conor McGregor appears to be the frontrunner after a lengthy back-and-forth between the pair.

Chuck Liddell also recently threw his hat in the ring, as well as British businessman turned boxing pro Joe Fournier and his long-time YouTube rival JJ ‘KSI’ Olatunji.

Source: Read Full Article