Jake Paul offers to fight McGregor in UFC

Jake Paul won't let the taunting of Conor McGregor lay to rest and surprisingly, Conor has been very quiet about it online and hasn't responded a great deal to Paul's comments even when Jake said that he would KO McGregor in the first round in either boxing or MMA.

I think it is rather obvious that this is just talk and many fighters make lofty claims like this yet very few of them are ever able to come through with their promises. You may recall when Conor himself was promoting all of his fights including the boxing match with Floyd Mayweather that ended up netting him a reported near $100 million, that he has said very similar things. The only time that he ever followed through on one of these lofty claims was against José Aldo where he KO'd Aldo in 13 seconds. It was a truly breathtaking moment and one that kind of ended José's career. He hasn't been the same ever since.

Jake Paul is a lot more talk than action but he does have a lot of clout in the fighting world and lately seems to be targeting UFC in particular for the promotion's poor payouts for most of the fighters.

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I wouldn't say that I have been terribly impressed with Paul's boxing and the fact that he has never really faced a real fighter is a big reason for that. He targets washed up fighters who need a payday and even then I kind of feel like the fights seem a bit rigged. He is drawing a lot of attention to the fact that MMA fighters are for the most part, dramatically underpaid and many of them end up broken and broke (in a financial sense) after and even during their runs in the sport. The only exceptions to this are the people at the top or those that can make a name for themselves with controversy or by having a good PR / social-media team.

Jake recently has been trying to lure Conor McGregor into a fight of any sort and has stated that he is willing to make this happen in either a boxing ring or the Octagon, whichever one Conor is willing to meet him in.

He does have one stipulation if this takes place in the UFC though and that is that if Dana White and Co agree to the bout, that fighter pay MUST be addressed and increased across the board.

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Dana has been very quiet about this whole thing and I think this is because at the end of the day White is a businessman, and a very successful one at that. We all know that sports are about making money for the promoters, not necessarily the athletes and even though he hasn't said it, Dana knows that none of the UFC fighters (or any fighters for that matter) are forced to fight for the pay that he gives them and they do so electively and for the most part enthusiastically.

Jake on the other hand, is taking every opportunity to talk about his potential transition to UFC and has even gone so far as to say that he wants to make a wager with Dana White and the UFC: If he defeats McGregor in MMA, White has to increase overall fighter pay. If he loses, Paul has agreed that the UFC can keep all of his purse.

This is a very bold statement indeed and one that White is very unlikely to accept. No matter what happens Dana White's bottom line will be negatively affected. Even if Conor wins quickly and in glorious fashion, the media will be focused on fighter pay and Jake will be a hero win or lose.

This is why I feel the fight is very unlikely to happen either in the UFC or not. White stands to gain nothing outside of the short-term gains from Pay-per-view sales. Paul went on to claim that Conor has never done anything for the UFC to benefit anyone other than himself as McGregor is one of the select few fighters that has made a very good living by working with the UFC while a vast majority of the fighters, even some that are in the top 10 of their divisions make very little money.

So will this fight happen? I don't think it has a chance to until Conor decides to walk away from UFC and I don't see that happening for at least a couple more years. Conor is a mouthy fella and his lack of response to Jake Paul kind of suggests to me that he and White must have an agreement to ignore this so that it will go away.

I would like to see it happen, not necessarily because I think it would be a good fight because I don't think it would be. Conor is tiny in comparison to Jake Paul and they would both have to dramatically alter their physiques just to be in the same weight division. If they somehow can make it happen I am sure it would sell very well but I honestly don't see the UFC wanting to have anything to do with it. Does the UFC screw over their fighters? I think the answer to this is yes for the most part. But when Dana says that the fighters don't have to fight at all if they don't want the payouts that he offers, he is exactly right.

For now this seems to be a very one-sided affair with Jake doing all the talking and both Conor and Dana try their best to avoid the situation altogether. Time will tell I suppose and we are only a few drunken Tweets away from Conor setting the MMA world on fire should he decide to respond.