Talks of a fight between Jake Paul and Andrew Tate are heating up as the pair faced off whilst ringside for Floyd Mayweather vs Deji on Sunday night.
The pair were in attendance at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai to watch ring legend Mayweather clown around with YouTuber Deji for five rounds before stopping him in the sixth. Paul and Tate confirmed their plans to fight each other last week when they faced off inside a boxing gym, with Paul's Most Valuable Promotions uploading the video with the caption "negotiations".
In the video of their new staredown, Tate smiles at Paul whilst the YouTuber-turned-boxer's manager Nakisa Bidarian and popular entrepreneur Tam Khan both watch on. The pair lock eyes for 10 seconds before Khan tells them to square off in the ring, but they never did. Paul's YouTuber rival KSI recently mocked their past staredowns by questioning Tate's height and uploading his own impromptu face-off with popular streamer iShowSpeed.
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Boxing fans have criticised Paul's transition from YouTube fame to the ring, taking at aim at the quality of his opponents. But Tate has praised the 25-year-old for being dedicated to his newfound craft, telling Mirror Fighting : "Jake seems to be a person who is focused on his boxing career and is making his own money, he isn't scared of getting cancelled from a YouTube channel. He has a genuine career that he's taking seriously.
Four-time kickboxing world champion Tate has not fought in two years, but has welcomed a return to the ring against Paul or his brother Logan. 'The Problem Child' faced the toughest challenge of his newfound boxing career in UFC legend Anderson Silva, but dropped the UFC legend on the way to an impressive unanimous decision win.
Tate was banned from social media platforms TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram earlier this year because of his controversial views, but his popularity has only increased since the blackout. 'Cobra' insisted that he must be the a-side for any fight negotiations because of his name value.
"It's a matter of making sure the deal gets done correctly," Tate said of a return fight. "I'm not going to allow any of these social media clowns to pretend that they're the a-side of negotiations when I'm the most famous man on the planet. They do not deserve more money than me, in fact it's the opposite. If they don't fight me, they fight bums."
