Jake Paul has hinted at a big move away from boxing to MMA.
YouTube sensation turned boxer Paul is scheduled to take on legendary mixed martial artist Anderson Silva in a boxing match on Oct. 29 in Phoenix, Arizona. After defeating former MMA champions, including Ben Askren and former UFC welterweight titleholder Tyron Woodley.
Silva stands as the toughest obstacle in Paul’s path, and it seems the octagon is in his future as well.
Jake Paul teases MMA announcement with a big organization
While hosting Woodley in a recent episode of the podcast BS w/ Jake Paul, Paul hinted at a highly-anticipated move to MMA with a ‘big’ organization.
“I’ve got an announcement coming soon,” Paul said (transcribed by My MMA News). “I can just tease that, that I’m working with a big organization right now on a whole thing in MMA that also has to do with me fighting and we’re gonna have an announcement soon. I want to do it.”
Paul will go to AKA for training
Paul shared that he had already found a coach to train him and it’s none other than Javier Mendez of American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), the famed trainer of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and the former gym of Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold.
“Javier Mendez said he would train me. So I’ll go to AKA (American Kickboxing Academy),” he added. “I’ll probably need like a year, year and a half to get the kicks down. I already know jiu-jitsu … I wanna be able to do everything in there. At least checking kicks. I know how to wrestle already.”
Everything appears to be set for the social media influencer to take to the cage. However, he will first need to get past “The Spider” in the boxing ring before changing sports. It is yet to be seen who he partners with for his MMA debut.
