On June 28, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will headline a Most Valuable Promotions event in association with CELSIUS Live Fit Essential Energy and Golden Boy Promotions. “El Gallo” has been linked with many future fights including a bizarre exhibition against Gervonta Davis. Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of the MVP promotional company with Paul has spoken to Sky Sports and revealed “a couple of conversations” have taken place regarding a huge crossover fight in the octagon with a current boxing world champion.
Jake Paul’s Team Confirms MMA Discussions Have Taken Place
Nakisa Bidarian Confirms Conversations
The legacy of Oleksandr Usyk is secure before his undisputed clash on July 19 against Daniel Dubois, However, it appears that a UFC debut is not out of the question, with Nakisa Bidarian revealing his business partner Jake Paul is ready to be the opponent and discussions have happened: “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.”
“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 added.
Paul’s business partner revealed how this crossover fight became a possibility: “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 said.
“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 Discusses Cultural Impact
Bidarian discussed the possibility of the fight and likely cultural impact: “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 said.
“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,” added Bidarian.
Jake Paul will face Chavez Jr while keeping an eye on future possibilities, including a rumoured exhibition against “Tank” and a potentially groundbreaking crossover fight with Usyk. Regardless of opinions about Paul, he continues to push the boundaries of combat sports.
