Former UFC title contender Kenny Florian gives his props to Jake Paul for trying his hand at MMA.
YouTuber Jake Paul surprised the prizefighting world in early January when he announced his signing with PFL. “The Problem Child,” who’s been criticized for the opponents he’s chosen for his boxing bouts, has so far garnered some respect from the MMA community.
Former UFC title contender Kenny Florian, for one, is giving the 26-year-old the credit.
“I can see that he’s already training, I know that,” Florian recently told MMA Fighting. “I’m not a huge fan of the YouTuber fights and this and that but I have come to respect Jake Paul and what he’s been doing. This is a guy who does not need to fight. He’s already a millionaire. He does a lot of other stuff.
“For him to go in there, train hard, prepare for these boxing fights, he’s picking the right fights, clearly an intelligent guy. He’s making the right decisions of who he fights.
“He’s performing. He’s showing that he is dangerous. Now he wants to try his hand at mixed martial arts. I love it.”
For Florian, Paul’s willingness to take on the more arduous challenges of MMA competition is something worth respecting.
“There’s so much to the game when you’re talking about all the different skills he needs to have. The weight cutting, the nutrition, the strength and conditioning. There is so much to do when preparing for a mixed martial arts contest. He will find out about that very soon.
“I think that you’ve got to give him credit for wanting to do this. We haven’t seen it yet but he has followed through on a lot of the things he said he would do. I’m curious to see how it all goes down.”
Paul’s PFL debut has yet to be finalized. Right now, he’s preparing for a boxing match with Tommy Fury, which is set to happen on February 26th in Saudi Arabia.