Khabib Nurmagomedov's coach Javier Mendez has backed Jake Paul to make a major impact in the world of MMA, despite previously indicating that he wouldn't train him.
Mendez is one of the most renowned trainers in the sport, and has been in the corner for some of the greatest fighters of all time including Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold. And he is confident that an athlete of Paul's ability could make the transition into the sport after teasing a move yet again the past few weeks.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer is currently in camp preparing to face Anderson Silva, a legendary former UFC middleweight champion, on October 29. He has already knocked out former world champions Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley in the boxing ring, and is now looking to make the full transition the other way.
"Jacob Chavez is a very close friend of mine and he's an AKA coach," Mendez told MMA Junkie. "He trained Blagoy Ivanov [a UFC heavyweight], that's how I met him and he's with Jake Paul. I don't really know anything else other than he's training with an AKA coach which is Jacob Chavez, that's all."
"If Jake Paul wanted to do MMA, I'm sure he can. He's a wrestler and now he's got boxing, and he's a great athlete. So I think getting him ready wouldn't take too long, but at the same time too, it depends on the level, you know, where you're going to put him.
"You can't put him in with someone that's got great jiu-jitsu or great wrestling. They can take him down because he's not going to be able to survive that. So, he's going to need time."
Heading into his rematch with Woodley, Paul confirmed plans to eventually make the switch to MMA, ideally under Mendez as a head coach. That idea was quickly dampened, although the AKA boss refused to completely rule out the possibility as long as Paul were accepted by veterans in the gym such as Cormier, who is no fan of the social media star.
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"For sure I will," Paul said in a media scrum in December when asked if he would fight in the octagon. "People seem to forget that I was a state wrestler, division one in Ohio. I'm going to go and get coached up by Javier Mendez, Team Khabib and that's that. They're down, 100 per cent - I've got to go 10-0 or 12-0 in boxing first and then I'll hit that MMA fight."
However, that wasn't necessarily what the veteran coach felt. He told The Schmo : "It could happen but like anybody you know we have to go through all the coaches and all the fighters that are here and anybody that's a famous athlete like him. They will go through the routine that everybody does so he would have to get voted by everybody.
"First of all, he's never asked. What he's done is he's marketed himself beautifully. I loved the plug he gave us, I think it was a fantastic plug and I think he's a fantastic person. He in turn gave me a great return favour by talking about training with us. But the reality is no matter who you are, you have to go through the team to get consent to train with us.
"He hasn't been given consent because he hasn't asked, it's not that he won't I just know he hasn't asked. If he does get denied, he won't know who denied him cause we don't say that."
