By Matt Lieberman: UFC president Dana White and former champion Conor McGregor both took shots at YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul this weekend in letting them know what they think of him and his boxing matches.
McGregor called what Jake is doing as “Blogger Jack a** boxing,” and he’s showing no interest in wanting to fight him despite being called out repeatedly.
Some fans believe McGregor is afraid of getting knocked out by Jake, as it would be potentially ruinous for his UFC career if that were to happen.
Dana sounded a little bitter in reacting to Jake easily destroying former UFC star Ben Asken in a first round knockout on April 17th on Triller pay-per-view in Atlanta. In that fight, what Jake basically did was expose how poor a former high-level UFC fighter was when it came to stand-up fighting.
Obviously, that doesn’t make the UFC look good to have Jake, a fighter that has only been training on boxing for a short period, reduce one of their fighters to meteor dust.
Interestingly, when Dana was asked during the UFC 261 press conference if he’d be interested in doing business with Jake Paul, he reacted negatively to that idea, which isn’t surprising.
It’s not good business for White to have Jake destroying his fighters by quick knockouts inside the boxing ring. Having Jake expose the UFC fighters as having rudimentary fistic skills can’t be a good thing.
White says he doesn’t believe the pay-per-view numbers that the unbeaten cruiserweight Jake Paul (3-0, 3 KOs) pulled in for his April 17th fight against the winless Askren (0-1).
Dana White blasts Jake Paul
“He knocked out an NBA guy [Nate Robinson] that was 40-years-old and 30 lbs less than him,” said Dana White at the UFC 261 press conference in reacting to the success of Jake Paul.
“I don’t even know what to think about the Askren thing,” White continued in his rant about Jake. “The whole thing is mind-boggling to me but good for him. Grab that money while you can, kid.
“The numbers are there? Nah, I don’t know that the numbers are there,” said Dana White when asked if he would ever do business with Jake Paul due to his high pay-per-view numbers.
“Listen, do you know what would happen to this guy? He ain’t fighting in the UFC. You’re getting me talking about this guy again,” said White in getting heated about Jake.
“He’s getting hand-picked opponents, and God knows what else is going on with that whole f**** thing. There is a market for that; that’s not what I do,” said Dana White about Jake.
White points out there Jake isn’t fighting in the UFC, which is true. He’s not a wrestler, and that’s basically what that sport is mostly all about.
In the UFC, you see a lot of boring wrestling, kicking, and submission holds. It’s not the more exciting stand-up fighting you see in boxing, something that fans are more interested in watching.
Of course, Jake isn’t going to enter the UFC to wrestle with other fighters because he’s not interested in that, and you can’t blame him.
But what Jake did in exposing a former UFC star as having poor boxing skills highlights what many fans believe about MMA fighters.
They can’t box, and they’re essentially just wrestlers that have been taught elementary-level boxing skills.
You can argue that the major portion of the MMA fighting is wrestling, and submission holds. If they made lighter gloves, that would probably increase the level of stand-up fighting.
That would obviously be a good idea because the wrestling and submission holds makes the MMA unwatchable for many fans. It’s not interesting watching wrestling.
It wouldn’t be a good thing for Dana White if Jake were to start beating his top UFC fighters, exposing them one after another in quick knockouts. It’s easy to predict that the fans would stop following these fighters after a knockout loss to Jake
. As such, we’re not likely to see Dana give the green light for any of his current fighters like Conor McGregor to fight Jake. There’s too much to lose.
White skeptical of Jake Paul PPV numbers
“The numbers that you’re hearing what they [Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren] did are full of s***. They’re full of s***. They didn’t pull those kinds of numbers at all, not even f**** close,” said White in dismissing the talk of the 1.5 million pay-per-view buys Jake did against the former UFC fighter Askren.
“How much did he make?” asked White when told that Jake made a lot of money for the Askren fight. “They said they did 2 million pay-per-view buys too. Okay, they didn’t do that either,” said White when told that the Jake vs. Askren event did 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.
“I don’t believe anything they say; that’s a f***** circus,” said Whyte in criticizing Jake Paul. “That’s not real; none of that’s real. Do you think any of that s*** that is going on over there [Jake Paul fighting on Triller] is real?
“Come on, man. I’ve built a real business here [UFC], a real sport. That’s a freak show,” said Dana White on what Jake is doing with his fights.
Well, it’s up to Triller Fight Club to confirm the pay-per-view numbers that Jake’s fight event with Askren pulled in on April 17th. Thus far, it’s Jake who said that his event brought in 1.5 million PPV buys and generated $65 million in sales.
If Triller can confirm those numbers, it would ultimately help them attract more fighters to want to take on Jake with their company.
It’s easy to imagine many former UFC fighters who would want to fight Jake inside the boxing ring if they believe that the fight would bring in over a million PPV buys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1MyuziTwHA
It’s easy to predict that Dana White will be totally resistant to letting Jake fight any of his current UFC stars because the outcome could be negative
. If they get destroyed in one or two rounds by the young 24-year-old Jake inside a boxing ring, would fans still want to see those UFC stars compete in the octagon? It’s fair to say that many fans would lose interest in watching them after that.
UFC high level fighting > Blogger jackass boxing
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 25, 2021