The first former UFC fighter that Jake Paul faced in a boxing match was Ben Askren. However apparently this opponent was almost Yoel Romero, according to the Solider of God himself.
The MMA community was somewhat shocked when news broke that Romero had parted ways with the UFC. While he has lost four of his last five, it was against the best in the world, with almost every bout being for a title.
Nevertheless he is now a Bellator fighter, set to make his debut this weekend after an injury delayed it. However he explained with the help of a translator in a recent interview on the MMA Hour that instead of signing with Bellator, he almost signed to fight Jake Paul in a boxing match.
“What happened was, initially Jake Paul wanted to do a fight with Yoel, but then when Yoel wanted to do it, the Paul team canceled the fight,” Romero’s translator said.
“Initially they wanted to do the fight with Yoel. That was when he was just getting out of the UFC, he had not signed with Bellator yet, and they said eventually no they don’t want Yoel… They decided to go with Ben Askren.”
Yoel Romero Was Not Disappointed
This is a crazy offer for Yoel Romero to get, and it is honestly little surprise that the Jake Paul team decided to go another route. However Yoel is not overly disappointed that the bout did not happen.
He says that Jake is not a particularly good boxer. So instead of taking a fight with Yoel, which would have been a challenge, he went with a much easier fight in the form of Ben Askren.
“They don’t want to face a real fighter. (The Paul brothers) are just trying to make it a show and they don’t want to ruin their show. They’re finding the easy fights. Even though (Logan) fought Mayweather, but the thing is, there’s a huge weight difference,” Romero said, through his translator.
“The other one fought Tyron Woodley, which he also has a lot of weight over Tyron Woodley. Tyron Woodley took a couple shots in the UFC before that fight, and he doesn’t have an extremely high level of boxing. He’s a mixed martial artists, he’s not only a boxer. So let’s hope they decide to change their minds. The fans want to see the fight against Yoel Romero.”
Do you want to see Jake Paul and Yoel Romero throw down in the boxing ring? How would that bout go down?
