Sean Strickland would enjoy the chance to deal with Jake Paul in the boxing ring, however it appears extremely not likely that will ever occur– a minimum of not while he’s under UFC agreement.
The previous middleweight champ entered a war of words with Paul just recently following a sparring match where he damaged a social influencer called Sneako, which captured the attention of the 8-1 fighter. Paul made a $1 million deal to fly Strickland to his training school in Puerto Rico for a battle, however that concept was shot down rather rapidly.
Strickland declared he asked the UFC for authorization to accept the difficulty however that UFC chief company officer Hunter Campbell shot him down, and included that Paul “offers no battles.”
UFC legend Randy Couture, who has frequently butted heads with his previous company, wants that the promo would a minimum of captivate the concept about the match, however he understands even with possible monetary gain on the line, it’s extremely not likely they ‘d accept the offer.
“Probably not,” Couture informed MMA Fighting about the UFC enabling Strickland to combat Paul. “It depends. If Sean Strickland took the strategy like Conor McGregor did and brought them in to benefit and earn money off this venture, possibly there’s a settlement to be had. I believe your evaluation is most likely precise, they’re most likely never ever going to let that occur.”
The UFC acted as a promoter along with McGregor back in 2017 when he combated Floyd Mayweather in among the greatest boxing pay televisions of all-time. It’s uncertain that Strickland and Paul might pull anywhere near those kinds of numbers, however it’s still a battle individuals would pay to see.
As far as the match goes, Couture warns Strickland that in spite of his large total experience benefit in fight sports, Paul has actually shown to be a capable fighter through the very first 9 battles of his profession.
Now if Strickland was permitted to sustain a complete training school where he just concentrated on boxing instead of MMA, Couture anticipates that would certainly even up ball game.
“I believe Jake has actually revealed he has abilities, that he can support the rhetoric and the talk,” Couture stated. “Obviously, he’s beaten some extremely, excellent guys. I believe Sean Strickland has an extremely strong striking background. He brings that to each and every single MMA match. We saw what he did versus [Israel] Adesanya and the method he resolved the issue there. Provide him time to have an excellent, complete camp in boxing, and I believe he would do extremely, effectively versus Jake Paul.
“It would be a really fascinating match. Jake’s perhaps a little larger, possibly a little more powerful, however I believe they’re extremely comparable in size. Whereas Nate Diaz, in my viewpoint, wasn’t huge enough. He didn’t have the ass, honestly, to bring the power to match Jake Paul in the match. I sort of believed Anderson Silva would do much better versus Jake Paul since he’s got a really strong striking background also.”
Couture applauds Paul for supporting whatever he states in the ring,