Jake Paul is set to box former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley on August 29th in Cleveland, Ohio, but don’t think he’s forgotten about his larger quest to eventually fight Conor McGregor.
In fact, Paul made quite the explosive claim on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, provided he was telling the truth. He claims that his team is in touch with McGregor’s team about the fight, and that the bout may be closer to coming together than we imagine.
“I think it will happen,” Paul said. “Look, I mean, I’m the money fight for Conor McGregor right now. There is no other fighter right now who is on a bigger level than me that is calling out Conor McGregor and wants to fight Conor”.
“Our team is in touch with his team and there’s talks of it actually happening. And people at first thought I was just joking when I said I wanted to fight him. But now it’s as real as it gets, it’s more real than ever and by the way, if we do fight, I’m going to knock him out.”
Jake Paul has done a good job of staying in the headlines following his two boxing knockouts against Nate Robinson and Ben Askren, with much of his trolling being directed at Conor McGregor and UFC president Dana White. So not only has he generated a lot of bankable interest, he’s also given the two people who need to sign off on this fight a lot of reasons to want to punch him in the face.
And with McGregor now out of commission until 2022 with a badly broken leg, returning to a boxing sideshow may not seem like the worst idea. Of course, that’s really just the money talking. McGregor vs. Jake Paul would make an obnoxious amount of money for everyone involved. An obnoxious, disgusting, ridiculous amount.
Jake also used McGregor to hype up his fight with Tyron , declaring “I think Tyron Woodley is a tougher opponent than Conor McGregor.”
“I think Conor, the fame, the money has gotten to his head,” Paul said. “He’s lost that fighter’s edge, that motivation.”
And then there’s the simple truth that became obvious after the Mayweather vs. Logan Paul fight: size matters.
“And look, he’s a smaller guy. He’s 5’8, 155 pounds. Tyron Woodley is a 200 pound massive explosive guy. So he’s a lot more dangerous than Conor McGregor.”
Even taking the size into account, it’s debatable. McGregor is an absolute killer with his hands, unlike Woodley who has one good power punch that he hasn’t managed to land in a few years. And now we’re debating McGregor vs. Paul with way more legitimacy than it deserves.
Pray that if this fight comes together, it happens quick so we don’t have to spend more than a month or two on it before forgetting it like an embarrassing ex.