With all the star MMA competition under UFC contract, Jake Paul is daring Dana White to let them fight him.
YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul has done it again. On Saturday in front of a crowd of over 18,000 people he knocked former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley out cold, an improvement over their first fight which Paul won by split decision. The fight wasn’t anything to write home about but the finish certainly was, and it keeps the Paul hype train rolling as the 24 year old angles for ever bigger money fights.
Immediately after winning, Paul called out UFC stars Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz. And during the post-fight press conference he had a message for UFC president Dana White.
“I just knocked out a five time UFC champion and embarrassed your whole company,” Paul said. “And please, please let me get Kamaru Usman. Please let me get Diaz. Please let me get Masvidal. Please let me get McGregor. Because I’m gonna embarrass them too. I promise you that, Dana. I promise you that.”
As far as knockouts go, Paul ranked this one of Woodley as his best (watch the finish here).
“I would say this is number one because of the level of opposition,” he said. “This guy is the five time UFC champ and I flatlined him. Ben Askren, not really a striker. Nate Robinson, basketball player. But the fact that I proved I have one punch power on a legend of this sport, people are gonna be scared. That’s why Masvidal and Nate Diaz got up out their seats and left because they didn’t want me to jump out the ring and start going at them.”
“But people should be scared. Everyone’s on high alert. Everyone’s a target. No one’s safe. Hide your kids, hide your wife. I’m like Santa Claus, I’m coming down your chimney, I’ll f—k everybody up. I’ll f—k your whole family up. I’ll fight all of them. I don’t care.”
One opponent that’s questionable is Tommy Fury, UK reality TV star and younger half-brother of heavyweight boxing champ Tyson Fury. Tommy was originally supposed to fight Paul on Saturday until a broken rib forced him out of the match. He’s called for a March reschedule but Paul sounds like a winter vacation sounds better.
“I don’t really know what’s next on the roadmap,” Paul said. “I’ve done it all. I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish and I need to take a break, you know I’ve been going at this nonstop for a year and a half and it’s a lot, it’s a lot. I’m tired. I’m exhausted, is the vocabulary word that I would use. I need to spend time with my family for Christmas and go on vacation.”
“I haven’t gone on vacation since I was 18 years old. I told myself ‘Not until you feel like you’ve got to a place in life where you deserve a vacation.’ And I deserve it now. So I’m gonna go on my first real vacation where there’s no obligations. Because Ive gone on vacation where I have to film it and vlog it and do interviews and wake up at certain times and still work out. I’m going on a real vacation and doing backflips into the water.”
As for the Woodley fight, Paul sounded critical of his own performance until the finish.
“I was just off. I don’t know, man. I was off a little,” Paul said. “Pulled a muscle again in my arm in the first round there. But had to fight through a lot of tough moments, and Tyron is tough, man. He’s a really tough guy. He hit me with an elbow and I’m bleeding into my eye. But still got the job done.”
he’s fine @jakepaul pic.twitter.com/O5WKyEirrs
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 19, 2021
But he’s still clearly proud of his performance and not interested in hearing any criticism from boxing fans who still feel like he’s not a ‘real’ boxer.
“I’ve done more than enough,” he said. “Four massive fights in 13 months. No one in the history of boxing has done what I’ve done at this age. Massive pay-per-views, knocked out every single person that I’ve fought. The only person that’s as active as me doing as big of pay-per-views is Canelo. And like I said, I knocked out everyone that I fought, turned ‘em all into memes, that s—t’s going viral all over the internet.
“And I’m ready to fight whoever, it doesn’t matter if they’re a ‘professional’ boxer or a five time UFC champion. I don’t care. I’m really built for this and no matter what I’m going to find a way to get the job done and that’s what I showed tonight.”
“And Tommy Fury is lucky he wasn’t in there tonight because Tyron is way tougher, has that experience. Tommy probably would have looked a lot worse than that, and that was pretty bad.”
As for long time goals, Paul added another to the list: win a proper boxing championship belt.
“Two years as a professional and this has gone astronomical and is making history,” Paul said. “So yeah, I’d love to keep putting on historic events and sell massive PPVs and fight higher level opposition as I go. And maybe when the time is right I’ll go for the world championship belt, whatever belt that is, IBF, WBA, WBO, I dunno. But it’d be funny to just become world champion and go ‘Yeah, I’m a YouTuber.’
“And as soon as I would win the world championship, I’d take the belt and throw it on the f—king ground and stomp on it. Because you’re a champion [in your mind] and in your heart before anyone tells you you’re a champion. I am a champion.”