Jake Paul is 5-0 as a professional boxer, but it seems as though his MMA dreams may becoming real.
The Problem Child is just one month removed from knocking out former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, but his feud with UFC boss Dana White keeps making headlines.
Paul posted a video clip of him in MMA training and he was working on leg kicks, something that proved to be Conor McGregor’s demise against Dustin Poirier nearly one year ago. McGregor has been another long-term target of Paul’s.
“1st day training kicks,” he wrote. “Doubted every step of the way.. but kick down the doors of the doubters.”
Paul tagged the Twitter accounts of MMA promotions Bellator and PFL in an obvious nudge at the UFC and Dana White as Paul believes they do not pay their fighters properly.
Last week, Paul tweeted a wager that he’d retire from boxing if the UFC increased fighter pay and White gave him a fight in the octagon. White and the UFC did not meet the deadline he attached to his offer, but the jabs have remained ongoing back and forth.
White repeatedly has dismissed Paul’s accomplishments in a boxing ring and is adamant his pay-per-view sales are not what he says.
In a video response to Paul, he challenged the 24-year-old to random steroid testing for the next two years in exchange for being tested for cocaine, something the YouTube star turned boxer has accused White of doing.
As CM Punk’s flirt with UFC proved, it’s very difficult to transition to MMA at the highest level from nothing. Punk, who has now returned to professional wrestling with AEW, was approaching 38 when he had his first-ever MMA contest and it was in the UFC after approximately two years of serious training.
Paul does have a decent background in amateur wrestling from his high school days and has age on his side if he wanted to train seriously, but with the options he has in boxing and the money he is allegedly making, the only real incentive he has to move over to MMA is to stick it to White.
A fight with Tommy Fury still seems probable in Paul’s future just given the interest surrounding it. Rumours have also circulated that Paul might face Anderson Silva or the man he defeated last year, Julio César Chávez Jr.
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