Jake Paul sees the brightest of futures for his boxing career, which includes a path toward perhaps the most lucrative bout in the fight game against Conor McGregor.
That path goes though Nate Diaz.
Paul, the YouTube personality, rapper and actor who has crossed over into the boxing world, is scheduled for his third professional boxing bout April 17 when he takes on former MMA standout Ben Askren on pay-per-view.
Although there seems to be a lot of skepticism around Paul’s career, he promises he’s taking it seriously and thinks Askren is merely the foundation to some truly marquee fights.
“We’ll see what happens after this fight,” Paul told MMA Junkie. “Floyd Mayweather called me out last week. I still think there’s the McGregor fight. Nate Diaz said he’s down to fight me. We’ll see what happens. I’m excited. This is just the start of an illustrious career. Ben Askren just happens to be the first on the list.
“People are going to see. They’re going to be surprised, and it’s going to be hard for me to get a fight after this, to be honest. It really is. People are going to see my performance and say, ‘Let’s really second guess ourselves here because, do we want to lose to the Disney channel actor, boxer kid?”
Eventually, though, Paul thinks his value and stardom will grow to the point that he’ll be an irresistible fight to the biggest names in combat sports, such as the aforementioned Mayweather, McGregor and Diaz.
Diaz is a particularly intriguing matchup to Paul. In his mind, it’s the most realistic, and it would also serve a greater purpose.
Last week, Diaz said in an interview with ESPN that a boxing match with Paul would “for sure” will happen “at some point.” According to Paul, the wheels are already starting to turn, and he claims Diaz has just two fights remaining on his UFC contract.
If that turns out to be the case, and they fight, Paul said he’d produce a one-sided effort that would undoubtedly catch McGregor’s attention.
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