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Kamaru Usman Would Consider A Boxing Match With Jake Paul

May 8, 2021 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with ESPN, UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman spoke about the future fights he is considering and said he would think about a boxing fight with Jake Paul. Here are highlights:

On upcoming fights determining who his next opponent could be: “I think [UFC 263] is an important night for these fights to play out. Yes, I do want to see how those play out. If Leon looks spectacular, it would make sense. If Nate looks spectacular, that could make sense as well. With the whole Marvin situation, I don’t want to necessarily think about it, because I’m 100 percent behind Izzy on that. I think he can pull it out. But if there was ever a case where I would actually go up and challenge for that [second] belt, it would be without Izzy in the picture. So if Izzy isn’t the champ, it’s something we can take a look at.”

On a possible fight with Colby Covington: “I’m not going to say I don’t want the fight. I want all the smoke. It doesn’t matter who it is. I want all the smoke. At the end of the day, what has [Covington] done to earn this? Your claim to fame can’t be, ‘I went five rounds [against Usman in a title fight in 2019] and the guy broke my jaw and finished the fight.'”

On a boxing match with Jake Paul: “He’s starting to think he’s a fighter, and that’s the state we’re in. YouTube fighters picking fights with actual fighters. It’s a no-lose situation for them because if they go in and get beat up, they still make a lot of money. That kid is dangerously close to taking me to that violent place. He has no business mentioning my name in his mouth. And now he’s putting pictures of me and my family out, so it’s starting to slowly shift to that place where it could be a problem. I think with the right presentation and if it makes sense — at the end of the day, Dana is not the best promoter in the game for no reason. He knows what he’s doing. If it makes sense for him, it’s one of those conversations we might have to have. If it makes dollars, sometimes it makes sense. Who knows? We might have to have that talk.”

article topics :

Kamaru Usman, Joseph Lee