Editor’s note: This article was originally published at MMAJunkie.com.
Scott Coker is certainly open to doing business with Jake Paul.
While Paul continues to go back-and-forth with UFC president Dana White on fighter pay and the legitimacy of his wins, Bellator boss Coker has high praise for the YouTube star and his older brother Logan Paul for the noise they’ve been able to make in the boxing world.
Not only that, but Coker lauds their work ethic. Paul is coming off a highlight-reel knockout of former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in December, his most impressive win to date.
“I always said, ‘Look, these guys are real athletes, and they’re young, they work hard, they’re grinding it out,’” Coker told MMA Junkie. “They’re putting in the work. You can’t take that away from them, and they’re getting better and better and better. What you saw with Woodley, that’s a lot of hard work to get to that point.
“I’ve never seen Woodley get knocked out like that, right? And so, is it just boxing? Yes. So, I always said, ‘Look, man, don’t underestimate these guys,’ and this was like a year-and-a-half ago.”
Paul also expressed interest in an eventual transition to MMA, claiming that he’s been in touch with American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez, who has coached the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold to UFC titles.
If Paul is serious about competing in MMA, Coker is ready to do business with both brothers.
“If you want to come into MMA, we would gladly do it,” Coker said. “Think about this: He’s not saying, ‘I’m going to go train here. I’m going to go train there.’ He’s going to come to one of the best gyms in the planet, where Khabib is, where Daniel Cormier is still training, where Cain Velasquez is teaching there now, and he’s going to go into an environment that he is going to flourish, and he has a wrestling background already.
“He has great striking, obviously. You’ve seen it, and so this guy is just going to get better and better and better. The days of him fighting basketball players or whatever, those days are over. He wants to do it. The only thing I will say is, my understanding is he wants to get 10 fights into boxing, and then after that come over to mixed martial arts.
“I know certain people feel a certain way, but I tell you, don’t underestimate these guys because when they have their minds made up, it just seems like that they’re able to fulfill their destiny, and so to me, it’s something that if they want to make it happen, we would love to do something with them and put them in some big fights and really test them out.”
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