Jake Paul calls out Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor.
Love him or hate him, Jake Paul is making waves in the combat sports sphere and is getting the attention of some big name fighters.
Despite his massive inexperience in the boxing ring, Paul already has a fight lined up with former ONE FC and Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren in April and, after that, the 24-year-old has UFC standouts Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor on his radar.
Paul plans to ‘embarrass’ Diaz, who said the YouTuber should be careful what he wishes for, before setting up a mega fight with McGregor, whom he labelled ‘Dana White’s b-tch’.
“We’ll see what happens after this fight,” Paul told MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn in a recent interview. “Floyd Mayweather called me out last week. I still think there’s the McGregor fight. Nate Diaz said he’s down to fight me. We’ll see what happens. I’m excited. This is just the start of an illustrious career. Ben Askren just happens to be the first on the list.
“People are going to see. They’re going to be surprised, and it’s going to be hard for me to get a fight after this, to be honest. It really is. People are going to see my performance and say, ‘Let’s really second guess ourselves here because, do we want to lose to the Disney channel actor, boxer kid?”
“I think Nate Diaz will probably happen first,” he added. “I think Conor needs to get some wins under his belt. Conor is owned by Dana White. Conor is Dana White’s (expletive), so he has to get Dana White’s approval. Nate Diaz only has two more fights in the UFC (on his contract), so if he can complete those and he’s freed up then Nate Diaz vs. Jake Paul will happen in 2022. Those are sort of the talks that are happening right now.
“Once I beat Nate Diaz, once I embarrass him actually, I will be undeniable to McGregor because I will say, ‘Hey, bubba. Listen to me, guy, you little Irish guy: I beat the guy who beat you. So you have to fight me.’ That’s why this is so exciting. It’s one step at a time. It’s one fight at a time. I still have a major milestone ahead of me April 17, and like I said, though, this is the start of an illustrious career. Ten years from now I’ll be coming to watch these interviews, and I’ll be like, ‘Damn, this kid was a little evil genius, predicting all of this.”
Paul is just 2-0 as a professional boxer but warned critics not to write him off ahead of his highly anticipated showdown with Askren on April 17.
“I’ve done a great job of hiding my boxing ability because just the less people that know, the better,” Paul said. “But I think the cat’s sort of out of the bag. I think people are starting to catch on and be like, ‘Ah, this kid is not a (expletive) joke. I’m a real dog, man. I’m a real, bonafide, striking-ass, Navy-Seal-swinging-ass, mother(expletive) dog.”