To answer Jake Paul, Dana White went into the beast’s guts.
White was asked flat-out whether the much-discussed fight between the YouTuber and former two-division champion Conor McGregor would ever be a fight the UFC would be prepared to accept during a lengthy interview on Impaulsive with Logan Paul, Jake Paul’s elder brother’s podcast, on Tuesday.
“Well, he shouldn’t even be fighting Conor McGregor,” White said. “These guys [the Pauls] are f****** huge. [Logan] is huge, his brother [Jake] is huge. What’s your brother, 6-foot-1, 210 [pounds]? Conor McGregor is 145, 155 pounds. … There’s weight classes for a reason.
“Do you think [Jake] could make ‘70?” White continued, asking Logan Paul directly.
“I don’t think so,” Logan Paul replied.
“Yeah, exactly,” White said. “And it’s a stretch for Conor to fight at 170. He fought Nate [Diaz] at ‘70, that isn’t his f****** weight class, not even close.”
“Stop making excuses p****” – UFC President Dana White responds to Jake Paul’s Conor Fight
Since his professional boxing career, Jake Paul has been a thorn in White’s side since the start of his professional boxing career. The popular social media mogul has exposed numerous UFC’s questionable business practises, publicly chastised its athletes, and even created a music video for a diss track directed at White, which has over 3.7 million views on YouTube. Jake Paul recently raised the stakes in the simmering dispute by offering a one-fight deal with the UFC in which he would confront McGregor in an MMA match.
If he wins, he wants UFC executives to agree to a previous proposal to restructure fighter pay and healthcare, and if he loses, he wants to donate his whole bout purse to UFC fighters who make less than $50,000 per fight, as well as publicly promise never to mention the organisation again.
Jake Paul, unsurprisingly, was quick to respond to White’s newest assault on Tuesday.
“Dana White is begging for Diaz and Conor to fight for a third time,” he wrote in response to White on Twitter. “They have fought at 170 pounds in both their fights. I will fight Conor at 175 pounds, no problem. Stop making excuses p******.”
Dana White isn’t against Jake Paul competeing in the Octagon
When asked if the UFC has entirely ruled out the possibility of Jake Paul competing in the cage, whether against McGregor or someone else, White softened his stance and stated that he isn’t entirely opposed.
The UFC president also stated that he takes no objection to Jake Paul’s business practises throughout the feud.
“I’m never completely closed off to anything,” White said. “I used to say that about things, but I don’t say that anymore, because you never know. You never know what could happen.
“Listen, he’s a young kid out there trying to make some money, and I don’t fault anybody for that.
“It was never off-putting to me,” White added of Jake Paul’s antagonistic approach with the UFC. “In this business, it’s about attention. How much attention can you get? But more importantly, who gives a s***? Who cares that you’re going to fight this guy on Saturday night? You’ve got to make people care. You’ve got to make people stay home. They have a lot of different choices on Saturday, what to do with their time — you’ve got to make them stay home and pay for it. And everybody has a different style of doing that.
“I’m not against [Paul’s approach]. The thing is with me, if I really don’t like you and whatever, I won’t respond to you. I would’ve never responded to it.”
