Jake Paul has suggested that he will need to be offered a significant amount of money before he considers an MMA fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The YouTuber is undefeated in five career professional boxing matches and confirmed that he would be interested in a switch of combat sports.
However, Paul, who has advocated improving pay for mixed martial artists, does not believe that anyone has yet offered him a financial package that would tempt him to fight.
The 25-year-old denied reports of an offer from Khabib, and suggested that any potential fight would not take place “in the near future”.
“There is [interest to do MMA] and not in the near future but in the medium term,” Paul explained on The MMA Hour. “I would need to practise my kicks and a little more on the jiu-jitsu side for like two years, maybe two-and-a-half years before I would do that.
“Unless the money was really right but no one’s brought anything to the table that’s interesting enough.
“Khabib [Nurmagomedov] said, ‘We offered him a deal’ – it’s not true. They never offered me anything. Eagle [Fighting Championship] has never even done an event.
“Not to hate on anything they’re doing but I would need more than what I make in boxing to risk going into MMA right now. People would have to come $25, $35million dollars to just start the conversation with me.”
Paul’s legitimacy as a professional boxer has been questioned with the American yet to fight an establish boxer, with a planned encounter with Tommy Fury unable to go ahead after Fury suffered an injury.
He has suggested that if the money is right, a switch to MMA does appeal, and an encounter with Khabib would be high on the list.
“I would fight Khabib in MMA if they wanted to make that offer,” Paul said. “Because that would be exciting. That would excite me, especially if I had more time to train.
“That would be a massive fight. Probably a million, 2 million pay-per-view buys and all I would have to do is work on my wrestling skills. Because I could outstrike him standing up.”
