Dana White has questioned why Jake Paul won’t go after UFC champion Israel Adesanya rather than Conor McGregor, given the YouTuber matches up with the ‘Last Stylebender’ a bit more evenly.
As he has made waves in the boxing world, Jake Paul hasn’t been afraid of poking the bear of the MMA community – regularly going after a handful of different fighters.
The YouTuber’s most public beef has been with the pair of Dana White and Conor McGregor, urging Dana to allow the Irish fighting icon to take a fight with him either in the boxing ring or the UFC’s Octagon.
Jake has even offered to drop his rivalry with the UFC if he’s allowed to take on the Notorious one inside the cage, but, the UFC president isn’t sure Conor should be his target.
Ahead of UFC’s Fight Night in London, White spoke about how Jake and Conor don’t match up physically at all, which makes a fight difficult even in a neutral catchweight bout.
“That kid couldn’t even make 170lbs, that’s how big he is. I mean, he’s calling out these (smaller) guys,” White told ESPN, referring to the massive weight difference between Jake and Conor. “Do you want to see that fight? So why are you even asking me about that, why are we even talking about it?”
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“They’re not even remotely close to being in the same weight class. This kid is 6 foot 1, 210 lbs. Conor McGregor is 155 lbs,” the UFC boss continued, noting that Conor isn’t afraid to fire back and claim he’ll step up. “Why isn’t he (Jake) calling out Israel Adesanya? I know! I know, and you know, and he knows, and everybody else knows too.”
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While their feud has escalated over the last few months, White isn’t afraid of doing business with the YouTuber and has repeated the “never say never” line. Though, he clearly would want to see something that makes sense.
Given that McGregor is the ‘money’ fight for many fighters, Jake’s continued beef with him makes sense, even if they don’t match up physically. Though, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.