Paul Calls For MMA Fight With ‘Hostage’ McGregor

Now that Paul’s fight with Mike Tyson is over, the YouTuber turned boxer is eyeing a fight with Conor McGregor, who he says is being held hostage by

Jake Paul is coming off one of the biggest matches in the history of combat sports against Mike Tyson, but two days later and he’s already picking another fight with UFC’s Dana White.

Paul vs. Tyson drew an insane 60 million viewers on Netflix, although it’s unknown how many actually managed to watch the fight due to buffering issues. Everyone generally agreed though that it was a sad spectacle: Tyson was clearly on his last legs and unable to move around the ring at 58 years old. Paul ended up tapping at the aged legend for most of the fight, carrying Tyson to a decision.

Where does Jake Paul go from here? It’s hard to say, but his ability to pick out the biggest fight with the least amount of risk is unparalleled. And now he’s set his sights on an openweight MMA fight with Conor McGregor.

“Dear Conor, I know you told my team you would fight me at 170lbs,” Paul tweeted on Saturday morning. “That’s never happening. But let’s run it in MMA. No weight class. Just like how it used to be done. But you won’t.”

McGregor can’t, because he still has two fights left on his UFC contract … two fights the promotion seems dead set against giving him any time soon. As seems the case more and more these days, it’s UFC CEO Dana White who stands between some of the biggest (and admittedly stupidest) fights in combat sports these days. So Paul took a shot at White this morning (Sun. Nov. 17th, 2024), sharing a story from MMAMania.com on on of the UFC boss’ less successful past ventures.

“Dana White has a been a boxing promoter his whole career,” Paul wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “All these nut riders need to do their research. His TV show failed. Couldn’t sell 4K tickets in Dublin with that useless Irish boxer (Callum Walsh) he’s promoting. And he is not fighters first. He’s Dana first. Builds you up and tears you down.”

“Now Conor McGregor is hostage,” Paul added. “Free Conor.”

This isn’t the first time Paul has come out and commented on Conor McGregor’s strange situation with the UFC. “The Notorious” is the biggest star the UFC has ever had, yet there’s been no urgency to get him back into the cage since he recovered from a bad leg break in mid-2021, despite his being eligible to fight since April 2024. Currently White is saying McGregor might fight at the end of 2025. Yes, the end. So maybe around this time next year. Twelve months away. Maybe.

Paul has previously suggested the UFC was slow-playing McGregor’s final two fights so they’d be a part of any new multi-billion dollar broadcast deal the promotion negotiates in early 2025. That would go into effect late 2025, tracking with White’s current timeline. And hey, keeping McGregor locked under contract while Paul continues to disrupt the combat sports scene is probably a nice bonus too.

Jake Paul wasn’t just the headliner alongside Tyson for Friday’s big fight. He also runs Most Valuable Promotions, the company that organized the event and partnered with Netflix. He’s clearly got extremely big aspirations in the game.

“Crazy that we did a bigger gate than every UFC event history and that company is 30+ years old,” he said of the Tyson fight. “Biggest gate of Mike Tyson’s career. Biggest attendance of Mike’s career. Biggest viewership of Mike’s career. Biggest combat sports gate in US combat sports history outside of Las Vegas. It takes two to tango.”

Can Paul find another second as big as Mike? He thinks he already has, he just has to free him from the UFC’s iron grip. While not an easy task, it’s preferable to other options … like fighting Francis Ngannou next.