Oleksandr Usyk and Jake Paul’s groups are contemplating whether or not the 2 may meet in a combined martial arts contest.
Oleksandr Usyk is the pre-eminent boxer of his technology. An Olympic gold medallist, unbeaten as an expert, who’s gone undisputed at each cruiserweight and heavyweight, Usyk is near the height of his powers.
Jake Paul is a social media influencer who has launched a boxing profession that’s having fun with standard success. He misplaced a choice to Tommy Fury however has crushed former UFC fighters and staged a high-profile eight-round bout with the 58-year-old Mike Tyson.
However a crossover MMA conflict between the 2 is being mentioned.
Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of the MVP promotional firm with Paul, revealed: “We’ve had a couple of conversations, all very positive, and it just depends on how the timing lines up. I think the opportunity is there”.
He advised Sky Sports activities: “Jake is crazy enough to do it for sure, Usyk’s side seem very interested in it. So it’s just about lining up the timing and I think eventually it’s something that will happen.”
Bidarian defined how the unlikely link-up took place. “Daniel Dubois got his US debut on Jake’s first pay-per-view event in 2021 and then we went to support Usyk vs Dubois in Poland when they fought, and so we started to build a relationship with them. I think it was three or four months ago when Usyk came out and said: I’d like to do one more fight and I’d like to fight Jake Paul in MMA,” Bidarian stated.
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Watch Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk share a closing face-off forward of their heavyweight blockbuster conflict.
“Jake is crazy enough to do it. It’s funny, he told me the other night: ‘Oh, that’s an easy fight.’ I said he’s got a wrestling background. He’s like: ‘Oh [no], I didn’t know that!'”
Bidarian nonetheless believes an MMA bout with Usyk would make sense for Paul, and might occur.
“I think so, absolutely. Jake has two priorities, as do I for his career and MVP as a whole: we want to put on great boxing events and he wants to become world champion, but we also want to do mainstream cross-cultural moments in combat sports. Paul vs Tyson did that in many ways,” he stated.
“The same thing for Paul vs Usyk in MMA. That’s going to be a cross-cultural moment that the world will pay attention to. So we’re always interested in those opportunities.”
Watch the Callum Simpson vs Ivan Zucco European title struggle dwell on Sky Sports activities on June 7.
