Boxing
Michael Bisping on boxing Jake Paul: ‘I don’t see Jake Paul as necessarily a threat’
Watch Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano live on DAZN
Michael Bisping last fought in the UFC back in November 2017 in a losing effort to Kelvin Gastelum. Shortly after that, the Brit retired from competition. So could we be seeing a return of 'The Count'?
Last weekend, Jake Paul teased a return to the boxing ring and listed Bisping as being on the "hit list" of possible foes.
Bisping retorted and went on the offensive on his YouTube channel, saying he's been down this road before with "The Problem" and it led to nothing. But if terms could be agreed upon, the former UFC middleweight champion views it as an easy day at the office.
“So, do I want to fight Jake Paul?” Bisping said. “Listen, here’s the thing, I had a great career. I’m very happy with what I accomplished. I’m happily retired. I’m very, very happily retired. But I do miss the thrill of competition — and I don’t see Jake Paul as necessarily a threat. I retired from fighting because I only had one eye, and I didn’t want to risk my other eye. In boxing, bigger gloves, against Jake Paul, I don’t really see him as a threat. So Jake Paul, beating you up sounds like fun.
“Of course, you are a big star, and God bless you, well done to you. I’m not hating. Well done to you. You’ve done great things, all jokes aside, because I am kind of joking. You’ve done great. You’re earning a lot of money. You’re a big star. You’re getting a lot of pay-per-views and stuff like that. So for that reason, I probably would. I probably would, but we’ve been here before. He sent an email to [Bisping’s manager] Audie Attar, Paradigm Sports management, or his manager did, asking if I would fight him, offering $500,000. I said double it, add pay-per-view, and we’ll see where we go. Never even got a response. So he’s doing the same thing again here.”
Before Paul went on to fight Ben Askren in April 2021, his management team reached out to Bisping and made an offer for them to square off. An agreement wasn't reached, and Paul went on to knock Askren out. A significant hurdle to a Paul-Bisping clash would be the latter being cleared to compete from an athletic commission due to being blind in one eye. Bisping is up for competing in a different combat sport if he could somehow get cleared.
“This fight is never gonna happen, but I’ll tell you what, Jake, if you want to throw down, if you want to step in the squared circle with me, I’ll oblige. I’ll do it,” Bisping said. “It sounds like fun. It gives me a reason to train, to get in shape — give me a few months [to] lose a couple of pounds, and let’s go, baby! No problem. The only thing is, I won’t get sanctioned. I doubt one of the athletic commissions would let me right now because I used to lie about my eye, but now the secret’s out. The cat’s out of the bag. But there’s lots of places where they will not care. Lots of places where they don’t give a s—. What about Dubai? Dubai seems to be hosting a lot of fights. Let’s go to Dubai. What about an Indian Reservation? No problem there. Lots of countries in Europe, Africa, China — the world is our oyster. There’s not athletic commissions everywhere. I’m pretty sure we could find a place that would allow us to throw down.”
Before returning to the ring, Paul is busy promoting his client Amanda Serrano's fight against undisputed women's lightweight champion Katie Taylor on Saturday, April 30, at Madison Square Garden, which can be seen live worldwide on DAZN.
