Former UFC champion Michael Bisping had some choice words for TikTokers, YouTubers and influencers trying to get into the fight game amid the rise of Jake Paul’s boxing career.
Ever since Logan and Jake Paul began fighting other influencers and professional athletes in the ring, other celebrities have entered the fray to partake, such as with the infamous YouTubers vs TikTokers event.
Now, while speaking on The Fighter vs The Writer podcast, Michael Bisping revealed his true thoughts on the influencer boxing trend and how nervous he is for some of these folks stepping into the ring.
First, he commented on Jake Paul’s rise to boxing stardom and actually gave some props to the YouTuber.
Michael Bisping praises Jake Paul’s boxing career
“He’s got a massive following. I think a lot of people are quick to doubt him, quick to write him off, although I do think he’s dispelling that myth a little bit and people are starting to come on board,” Bisping explained.
Part of the reason for Paul’s credibility to grow comes in the form of his opponents and their caliber, especially with his next fight coming against former MMA champ Tyron Woodley, who Bisping actually predicts will lose to the YouTuber.
“The first one was KSI or someone like that I’m not sure. Then the basketballer, again whatever, but then he fought Ben Askren. I said I knew that was a perfect matchup. Even though Jake Paul comes across as a bit of an idiot, he’s pretty smart because that was the perfect matchup. That was genius matchmaking,” he said.
Bisping warns influencers fighting isn’t a game
Despite Bisping’s views on Paul, he isn’t as big of a fan as other influencers stepping into the fight business and warns that someone could end up suffering a major injury.
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“What I’m not a fan of is because Jake Paul’s done that and you see other people doing it, Logan Paul’s doing it, and now you have every motherf**ker on the planet thinking they’re a fighter,” he blasted. “Every motherf**ker on the planet thinking that it’s easy and you can go in there and have these fights. It’s not a f**king game. You see there was something with some TikTokker’s recently and they were all having a fight and these celebrity fights.”
He then brought up the upcoming bout between Game Of Thrones star The Mountain and Eddie Hall, which has been postponed due to injuries.
“We’ve got ‘The Mountain’ or someone fighting, these two big massive juiceheads or strong men or power lifters or whatever they are, forget their names, they’re fighting soon and it’s like this big thing,” he added.
“Ooh we’ll just make everyone fight one another and it’s great and it will all be a laugh. It’s not a laugh. It’s to be taken seriously. Someone’s going to get f**king hurt eventually,” he warned.
Bisping insisted he was only harsh because he’s worried for peoples’ safety and he has needed multiple surgeries throughout his career as a professional fighter.
“I’ve had about 25 surgeries throughout the course of my career and you’ve got these f**king idiots going in there that have never conditioned their body to the kind of damage that it’s going to take,” the 42-year-old stated.
It will be interesting to see how the influencer community responds to Bisping’s warning, but with the popularity of these fight events continuing to grow, it may just end up falling on deaf ears.