Jake Paul has thrown down the gauntlet to Conor McGregor for an MMA showdown, following his controversial victory over Mike Tyson. Right after winning against Tyson by unanimous decision, a bout that didn’t win any fans and prompted McGregor to blast in a swift exit from social media: “A 16 minute spar in sparring gloves. F— off.”

Undaunted by McGregor’s dismissal, Paul took to social media himself, challenging the MMA star: “Dear Conor, I know you told my team you would fight me at 170lbs. That’s never happening. But let’s run it in MMA. No weight class. Just like how it used to be done. But you won’t.”

During the post-fight press conference, where Paul questioned McGregor’s autonomy in choosing his fights, claiming, “Yeah, he’ll never do that though. He knows. He’s not his own boss.”

Furthermore, Paul taunted McGregor comparing their performances against Nate Diaz: “It’s easy to say Conor McGregor doesn’t want to fight Jake Paul, but it’s the f—— truth. Look at him go toe to toe with Nate Diaz who was easy work for me. It was like a Monday sparring session.”

Despite being known for boxing, Paul is gearing up for an MMA career, under contract with the Professional Fighter’s League (PFL), eyeing a debut in 2025.

Last month, PFL owner Donn Davis hinted at Paul’s ambitions to MMA Fighting: “He tells me the summer of 2025. He’s been training. If Nate Diaz would’ve accepted the fight as he did in the centre down in Dallas, he said ‘I’ll take the fight’, it would’ve happened.

Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson in Texas ( 

Image:

AFP via Getty Images)

“And then he backed away and didn’t take the fight. And then later, he was ready to take the fight, but Jake had a lot of success in boxing, so wasn’t yet ready to come back to MMA.

“You have to have timing, health, money, it all comes together, it’s very hard to do. That was one where the timing was always off between Diaz and Jake. Will Tommy (Fury) be back on next year? Don’t know.

“Will it be Tommy Fury? Don’t know. Will it be someone else? Don’t know. But Jake says he’s ready, but he really had so much success in boxing in his mind that it really delayed his MMA.”