Daniel Cormier believes Jake Paul will actually push through with his MMA debut.
Back in 2021, things were heated between Jake Paul and Daniel Cormier. An apparent callout from “The Problem Child” culminated in a confrontation at UFC 261, which involved slap threats and eventual callouts later on.
Nearly two years later, the two seemed to have patched things up. According to Cormier, he’s been in communication with Paul, who recently signed with the PFL.
“A couple of weeks ago, Jake Paul and I were messaging each other about an appearance on my show, DC & RC, and we were going back and forth talking about his future,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (quotes by MMA Fighting).
“And honestly, Jake and I have had some run-ins. But when I started messaging him, he’s a kid that’s very respectful. We had respectful conversations, we really did. We didn’t argue, we didn’t fight.
“He’s a kid that, he has an idea of what he wants to do. Now, these kids today are different. It was like [Israel] Adesanya with [Jon] Jones. Where I would kind of hold back, Adesanya would just say whatever it is he wanted to say about Jones.
“If there was an accusation, he would levy the accusation even if they hadn’t proven it true. That is what kids like Jake Paul do today. He’s very boisterous, he’s very verbal, he speaks big, but he was respectful.”
Paul, 25, has yet to finalize his debut. Some may have doubts about whether or not it happens, but Cormier believes it will.
“But will Jake Paul actually fight in the PFL? A lot of boxers say they’re going to fight, but they never actually do,” Cormier says.
“Here’s the thing about Jake Paul though: He’s from Ohio, a wrestling hotbed. Ohio has some of the best high-school wrestling in the entire country. Jake Paul was a high-school wrestler there and so was his brother Logan, and they weren’t bad.
“So although it seems as though Jake Paul does a lot of things to drum up interest, I believe this one. He’ll actually fight.”
Paul’s last fight happened in October against former longtime UFC middleweight champion and future Hall of Famer Anderson Silva. He won by unanimous decision.