Bisping was up for fighting Jake Paul before Ben Askren, but the price was not right.
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping says he was offered a fight with Jake Paul before the YouTube star turned boxer fought Ben Askren.
Paul defeated Askren by first-round knockout last month in their fight at Triller Fight Club. The win was Paul’s third of his professional boxing career and he has since been calling for fights with household names in the MMA world.
Bisping has been retired since 2018 but he wouldn’t rule out a return to fighting if the price was right. Talking to LowKickMMA, Bisping revealed Paul’s team sent him a fight contract but the money was too low.
“I got offered a contract. It wasn’t enough money. They made an offer and it was some decent cash,” Bisping said (h/t BJPenn.com). But, if I’m going to make a fool out of myself by boxing a YouTuber, then I’d want a bit more for that. I’m not going to come out of retirement, but that’s essentially free money to me. If the number was big enough, then I’d be a fool not to go and pick up that money.
“But I wasn’t pursuing it. And I think if anything, I think Jake was very clever. I think he just used me to try and make it seem like he was looking for real challenges. Because we got sent an offer and we countered with more than double. And we never heard anything again, and then we got the news that he’s fighting Ben Askren.”
Paul is arguably the most talked about name in combat sports at the minute. The 24-year-old was involved in a brawl with Floyd Mayweather on Thursday, that sparked reaction from the likes of Conor McGregor on social media. Mayweather is set to fight Jake’s brother, Logan Paul, in an exhibition bout on June 6th.