Jake Paul teasing move to MMA, says he has announcement soon
Jake Paul says he’s got a deal in the works with a “big organization” in MMA.
Jake Paul may make a moved to mixed martial arts soon, as the YouTuber-turned-novice boxer said he’s got an announcement coming and it involves a deal with a “big organization.”
On his “BS w/Jake Paul” show, the 25-year-old said, “I’ve got an an announcement coming soon, I can just tease that. I’m working with a big organization right now on a while thing in MMA that also has to do with me fighting, and we’re going to have an announcement soon.”
Paul said that he will be training with Javier Mendez, and that he would “probably need a year, year-and-a-half to get the kicks down. I already know jiu-jitsu. I want to be able to do everything in there — at least checking kicks. I know how to wrestle already.”
Paul is set to face Anderson Silva, a legitimate MMA legend with some actual boxing ability, in an Oct. 29 boxing bout on Showtime PPV.
Noting that he’ll need time to adjust is both realistic and means that even if there’s an announcement soon, an actual MMA fight probably won’t be coming until late 2023, maybe even into 2024. It’s unclear if he’d continue his boxing career in the meantime.
Paul’s relationship with MMA has always been sort of up-and-down, but as there there is some belief (or concern, depending who you are) that maybe his boxing career is banging against the ceiling of what it can actually be — both in the ring and commercially — a pivot toward MMA would potentially be an understandable idea.
Paul’s connection with Showtime Sports in the last couple of years makes it easy to suspect that the “big organization” he’ll be working with could be Bellator, who are part of Showtime’s combat sports brand along with PBC boxing and the Jake Paul business. UFC seems terribly unlikely, as he and Dana White do not have a good relationship, but they’re also both carnies at heart, and there’d be a lot of money to be made, at least once. Otherwise, you’re probably looking internationally at RIZIN or someone for an organization that could both afford Paul and give him a proper enough stage to not seem small-time.
It will be interesting to see if he attempts to fight exclusively boxers in potential MMA bouts.