Jake Paul is making his MMA debut next year after finishing up his year with one of the biggest boxing fights of all time.
The controversial social media star-turned-boxer is set to face Mike Tyson at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Friday, November 15. Netflix are set to make their debut in combat sport with the event, with fans able to watch the bout free with their subscription to the streaming service.
But once he has completed that assignment, PFL CEO Peter Murray insists that Paul will be heading to the Smart Cage. And he is expected to face a legitimate challenge when he makes the move over, although a weight class and opponent are still to be determined.
PFL boss Peter Murray details plans for Jake Paul’s MMA debut
Earlier this month, comments from PFL CEO Murray regarding plans for Jake Paul to finish up boxing with his Tyson fight made headlines around the world. He claimed that once the Netflix bout is finished, Paul will switch his focus to the cage and his debut in what is branded MMA’s co-leader.
And in an exclusive chat with Bloody Elbow ahead of October 19’s Battle of the Giants between Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira, he doubled down on that idea, saying: “Jake will continue on his boxing journey, but he is committed to making his PFL MMA debut in 2025.
“We have a partnership with Jake and we’re looking forward to supporting him in MMA. We’re going to stage that mega event next year and more to come on that too, that will happen. There’s a number of opponents who continue to line up.
“Conceptually this event continues to getting bigger and bigger. Jake has committed to take on a for real, legitimate fighter. So it’ll be a spectacle.”
Tommy Fury called out Jake Paul for PFL fight in recent YouTube video
In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Paul’s greatest boxing rival Tommy Fury went to work on his own MMA skills with UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall. The pair practiced leg kicks and striking, after years of friendship dating back to Aspinall’s pro boxing days.
And Fury, whose brother is two-time heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, made it clear that he would be interested in a bout between he and Paul in the cage. Their initial meeting in the ring last year drew over 850,000 pay-per-view buys making it one of the biggest hits of 2023.
Joking about his potential switch to the cage, Fury asked the heavyweight: “Jake Paul’s in the PFL, isn’t he? To which Aspinall replied: “Oh, I love that then.”
“I’m going to smash his face in when I get good at MMA,” Fury continued. “I’ll beat him in boxing and the cage. Big useless p***k. I reckon a year-and-a-half, to two years of training, until I’ll beat him in a fight no problem in the cage.
“He’s got the funds, he’s got the best sparring partners in the world. So, he’s doing alright. But, no match for me. I swear to you, next time I fight him, I’ll knock him out. In MMA, I just want to give him a big fat (throws knee). All elbows, no fists.”
Jake Paul details what he needs to make PFL debut
After inking a deal to take equity in PFL back in January of last year, Paul’s MMA debut has been a big topic of discussion. He was eyeing up a potential fight in 2024, but losing to Fury caused him to take a new look at his boxing career.
Now, he is keen to fight once he can find the right opponent for his initial outing. He has already beaten MMA stars like Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva in the boxing ring, but would need a slightly lesser challenge in the cage.
“It’s just about finding the name,” Paul told media including Bloody Elbow during a press scrum last month. “We have the money, we’re ready to go, we’re ready to make offers to people but they just have to be able to draw sales.
“And it has to be a fight where it’s, like, this is my first MMA fight. So I think I can beat Nate Diaz in my first MMA fight, it would be tough of course. It’s a 50/50 fight but I don’t want to go into something where I’m going to be outclassed like fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov in my first fight.
“It would be very, very serious. I would probably start working with either Sean O’Malley’s team or maybe Javier Mendez over in California. I would take it very, very seriously, I wouldn’t want to lose and I take everything I do seriously so I would definitely go hard as f***.”
