Jorge Masvidal is open to boxing Jake Paul.
Paul and Masvidal have been embroiled in a public war of words for the better part of the past year, with Paul calling out Masvidal for a boxing match and Masvidal shutting him down. Paul even took time to blast Masvidal in the diss track he released earlier this year, and then took shots at him after he allegedly assaulted Colby Covington in March. In short, the two men have some history together, and if the price is right, Masvidal says he’d be happy to settle up.
“I love money,” Masvidal said on Jake Paul’s brother Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast. “I stated that earlier in your show. If it made me money, and a ton of it, why the f*** not? No matter what, I feel like the chips are stacked on my side because he just got into this combat [sports world], for however long he’s been doing it, 5-6 years. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, so even though it’s not what I have my f****** PHD in, it’s still a form of combat that I have way more time than him doing and way more endurance. So of course I feel the chips are on my side. Big money, and I would bet on myself that I’d win that fight.”
In many ways, Masvidal would represent a logical step up for Paul in his current boxing path. The former Disney Channel star started his career by knocking out AnEnsonGib, a fellow YouTuber, before moving on to former NBA player Nate Robinson. From there he knocked out Masvidal’s own rival, Ben Askren, and then fought Masvidal’s teammate, one-time UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, twice, knocking him out in their second outing. But Masvidal believes he would be a bridge too far for the nascent pugilist.
“His last fight I was there live, and the best thing that I saw from it is he got cracked numerous times in this last fight, and I think he even suffered a little headbutt,” Masvidal said. “I saw his face in that one round where he was like, ‘Oh s***, it’s a f****** real fight.’ And the next round he was still kind of down in belief, but eventually he came back and he started fighting harder and better. So that’s the best thing I’ve seen about him so far. That he actually had real adversity… Woodley caught him like two good shots and he kept his composure and fought through, so he’s definitely improved.
“But Woodley is also a fighter that’s very good for him to fight. Woodley fights in spots, Woodley’s not crazy aggressive, he’ll explode on you with his one great shot. In MMA it would work, but in boxing, if all you have is a good right hand, I can kind of see that. I just gotta keep my hands up. I don’t have to worry about a takedown or a leg kick, I can just [cover up]. I don’t fight like that. I use both hands a lot so I definitely think it would be a completely different fight with me.”
There are, of course, major blockers for a potential fight between the two, namely, the UFC. Masvidal recently re-signed with the promotion on a five-fight contract, and “Gamebred” has already claimed that they won’t be interested in letting him box Paul because Paul is simply “trolling the whole world saying all these big money deals” in the first place. But if Paul can actually make it worth his and the UFC’s while, Masvidal believes there’s a chance it could happen.
“We’re locked up until it makes sense to them,” Masvidal said. “If they said, ‘F***, this fight is gonna generate us XYZ dollars, yeah, let’s do it. We’ll put a fee on it.’”