UFC President Dana White has made it no secret that he isn't a fan of Youtuber turned boxer Jake Paul, as the two have traded verbal blows in the media the past year or so.
White recently sat down with the FULL SEND podcast and discussed if there was any future of Paul working with the UFC anytime in the near future. The Octagon's head honcho never says never, but also believes a business relationship with him and Paul is highly unlikely at this point as he doesn't see much of a future for the social media influencer's fighting career.
“I just don’t see it happening,” White said (h/t MMAJunkie) “I don’t hate the kid. Is he f*cking annoying? Yeah, he’s annoying. He’s out there trying to make that money, and his shelf life is very f*cking short. Listen, I never say never, but I highly doubt it (working with Paul). It’s just not what I do. There’s a market for that. He could fight a different type of celebrity every week, and there’s going to be a segment of the population that wants to pay for that and see it, but that’s not what I do. I put the best against the best.”
He continued on to say he just doesn't buy into Paul's abilities and believes he hasn't fought any real fighters yet. White also thinks that the YouTube star's appeal is starting to wear thin as the media from his viewpoint is over Paul's gimmick.
“The media isn’t really following him as much as they did in the beginning,” he said. “The schtick is getting old. I think for him to get the media back, he’s gonna have to fight somebody. They’re tired of the schtick. ‘Hey, it’s me, I weigh 190, and I want to fight these guys that weigh 170, 155, and they’re wrestling, and they’re 40 f*cking years old, and they haven’t won a fight in three f*cking years.' If he wants to be taken seriously now by the real media, I think he needs to fight a real fight.”
White's comment clearly got back to Paul who responded with a series of tweets dismissing the UFC President's claims about his relevancy. Paul will next face former UFC welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley, in a cruiserweight bout from the Rocket Mortage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio and will be aired live on pay-per-view in partnership with Showtime Sports.
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