By Matt Lieberman: Fresh off his second round destruction of Jorge Masvidal last Saturday night at UFC 261, Kamaru Usman is now targeting YouTuber Jake Paul, wanting to take care of him for Daniel Cormier, who turned down a fight with him in a boxing ring.
The UFC welterweight champion Usman, 33, isn’t saying if he’s willing to fight the 24-year-old YouTuber inside the squared circle or if he’s only willing to face him inside the octagon under MMA rules.
If that’s the case, Usman would be taking the same path as former UFC heavyweight champion Cormier in wanting no part of mixing it up with the young lion Jake in a boxing match.
Usman has good power for an MMA fighter, but he’s not in the same league as Jake, and he’s considerably undersized at 170.
Usman would need a weight handicap
Given that Jake weighed in at 171 lbs for his last fight against former UFC star Ben Askren on April 17th, Usman would have to hit the protein shakes hard for him to be able to bulk up enough to compete with the younger, bigger, and stronger Jake Paul inside the boxing ring.
“If these guys don’t show me anything, maybe I’ll put out one of these guys who think ‘I can box’ and beat the s*** out of them,” said Usman to TMZ Sports about wanting to take on Jake Paul.
“DC [Daniel Cormier], sit down, let me take care of that for you,” Usman said.
Considering that Usman is signed with the UFC organization, one would venture to guess that he’ll need permission from president Dana White for him to be given the green light to fight Jake Paul.
After what happened to Conor McGregor and Ben Askren when they stepped foot inside a boxing ring, it’s predictable that Dana White will be deadset against little Usman fight Jake in a boxing match.
Dana might be willing to let Jake come over to fight Usman inside the octagon under the rules of the MMA, but why would he do that?
Jake Paul is clearly the more popular fighter than Usman, so why would he ever agree to come over to the UFC so he can roll around on the carpet with him?
That won’t interest Jake, and he’s not going to give away his A-side status to fight a guy that is only known to the MMA fans.
What happens if Jake destroys Usman?
Regular boxing fans and YouTubers likely have no idea who Usman is. The guy that will be bringing in the pay-per-view buys in a Jake-Usman fight is Jake.
So if Usman wants the fight with Jake, he’s going to have to be willing to mix it up with him in the boxing ring, and deal with whatever comes in the aftermath of the fight.
Hopefully, Usman doesn’t get discouraged if he gets beaten badly like Askren and retires from the sport.
That would be a nightmare for Dana White. Hence, that’s why it’s likely that he’ll say no to the idea of letting Usman tangle with Jake because he obviously knows what would happen if he gets blasted out as Askren did.
“He’s fought once in the last year and a half and that didn’t end well for him,” Usman said about Conor McGregor. “Imagine what I would do to him. I would take his life in there.”
