Jake Paul declines Daniel Cormier's MMA challenge: 'If he comes and boxes me, I will beat him'

Jake Paul won’t be taking Daniel Cormier up on his challenge to fight MMA, but is more than happy to step into the boxing ring with the former two-division UFC champion.

Tension between Paul and Cormier has ramped up in recent days after a face-to-face confrontation between the two occurred at UFC 261 this past Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. The situation irked Cormier, and Monday he proposed an MMA showdown with the YouTuber-turned-boxer, who has ruffled the feathers of many in the MMA community since his knockout of Ben Askren at Triller Fight Club this month.

During a conversation with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Tuesday, Paul made it clear he’s not going to oblige Cormier’s choice of ruleset. It’s boxing or nothing, he said, and explained why.

“Of course he’s going to challenge me to an MMA fight,” Paul said. “Of course. But I find it funny because he’s challenging me to something I’ve never trained in, and he’s trained boxing and striking and standup and has been in there with Stipe (Miocic), Jon Jones. I mean, he lost those fights, but he’s been in there with the best of the best striking, so why not box? You want to go against me in something that I’ve never trained in before? Of course. That’s like me finding someone off the streets, literally who has never boxed a day in their lives, and being like, ‘OK, come in here, I’m going to challenge him.’

“Of course he’s going to duck the boxing offer. And by the way, there’s way more money in boxing, so we would make more money in a boxing match. Again, I’m a boxer. I never said that I will beat Daniel Cormier in an MMA fight. If he comes and boxes me, I will beat him. Maybe a part of him knows that, which is why it’s funny. Why would he not accept that offer? If we fought, that would be the most amount of money that he will ever make in any of his fights, by far.”

Paul said he thinks a boxing bout with Cormier would do “upward of 2 million pay-per-view buys.” It would certainly be an event that would capture the attention of the combat sports world, but Paul doesn’t seem entirely optimistic it will happen.

For that reason, Paul is somewhat confused why Cormier decided to spark an interaction with him at UFC 261. Paul said he didn’t start this feud with Cormier, but only continued it when Cormier was critical of his win over Askren and discussed it multiple times on his ESPN talk show with Helwani.

Paul detailed the run-in with Cormier at UFC 261, and said it came off as a bad look for the legendary UFC fighter, who retired from competition following a trilogy-bout loss to Miocic this past August.

“We get there and of course I’m seated behind the commentators booth and the crowd sees me, starts chanting ‘F*ck Jake Paul, F*ck Jake Paul,’ and DC turns around and sees me and he’s staring right at me and he’s like pissed off and he starts mouthing something to me and I’m looking at him like, ‘OK cool, whatever,'” Paul said.

“Then there’s like a break after the fight, and I see him taking his headphones off and see him start charging at me, like a fast-paced walk, and before he gets face-to-face with me he’s like, ‘This isn’t a game. You better not disrespect me. You better not disrespect me or I’m going to punk you. Keep my name out of your f*cking mouth.’

“I think his goal was to like scare me or intimidate me. He came up all macho and fast and violently and put his finger right in (my) face and I’m like, ‘OK, guy. You’re not scary. You’re 5-foot-8 and chunky, boy.’ I think when he realized like, bro, I’m not intimidated by you at all. We can run it right now. If you want to do something, f*cking do it right now. I basically said, my immediate response was, ‘You put my name into your mouth first.’ Which is a fact. So for him to come up to me like, ‘Keep my name out of your mouth, keep your name out of your mouth,’ and for me to be like, ‘Bro, you talked about me first,’ which is very, very true.

“He, after the Ben Askren press conference, tweeted, ‘Ben is going to win for sure. I saw the way Jake reacted when he got mushed in the face’ or something along those lines. That was the first time he talked about me. Then you guys talked about me on your show multiple times, talked about me the week of the fight, talked about me after the fight saying, ‘Oh, that was embarrassing for Ben.’ I forgot what else he said. Then you represent the MMA community. Let’s fight if you’re so big and bad and tough. So, that’s the only time I mentioned him and I think that really upset him because I called him a fat boy. That’s when he came up to me like, ‘Keep my name out of your mouth.’ Like, you talked about me first bro.

“He also said he’s going to slap me when he sees me. He said, ‘If I ever see Jake Paul I’m going to slap him. I’m going to slap him in the face.’ Then he sees he, I’m right there, arms length, and he does nothing. It’s funny. It’s funny to me.’ I saw he said something where he said like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t beat him up because I’m at work and I would’ve gotten in trouble.’ Like bro, are you about you your sh*t or are you not about you sh*t? Dana White wouldn’t have done anything if you wanted to lay your hand on me. You had your chance and you b*tched out. It’s embarrassing. And you’re an embarrassment, an you’re not a man of your word. These guys man, they have something twisted up in their mind. They don’t see reality how it’s really playing out. Actions speak louder than words, and their words are worthless.

“I don’t mean (he’s) an embarrassment as a fighter. He’s a Hall of Famer. I respect him for what he’s done as a fighter, what he’s done for the sport is amazing. He’s a great wrestler, he’s a great striker, I’ve watched him multiple times. I don’t mean an embarrassment that way. I mean an embarrassment like, if you say you’re going to slap another man and you’re going to threaten someone and say you’re going to slap someone when you see them, and when you don’t do that, it’s embarrassing. He, as a person, isn’t embarrassing. That’s embarrassing.”

If the bout with Cormier fails to materialize, Paul said he has his sights on a pair of other MMA notables for his next trip into the boxing ring. He said he likes the idea of facing Tyron Woodley, who was in Askren’s corner for their Triller Fight Club headliner, or Nate Diaz once he completes the final two bouts on his current UFC contract.