- Paddy Pimblett and Jake Paul are working out the details for a $1 million spar.
- It would likely be the richest, most valuable sparring session ever recorded.
Paddy Pimblett and Jake Paul want to send each other through the ropes.
After making a bold claim, without providing real evidence, that the YouTube personality Paul fixes his boxing bouts, the American fired back by challenging the fast-rising UFC star to a fight.
It's a fight Pimblett was quick to accept — and Paul now appears to be working out the details.
What the hell is happening here?
Though his entry into combat sports may have first been regarded as a gimmick, Paul is a legitimate pro boxer now, having competed six times and scoring four knockouts from his six wins.
He is even ranked the 27th-best cruiserweight in the United States, according to the sport's record-keeper Boxrec.
But after Paul's wins over the likes of Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, and Anderson Silva, Pimblett said this week that all may not be as it seems when it comes to the influencer's fights, despite him displaying a modicum of talent.
"I'll give Jake Paul his due now, he's training [so] much that he probably could beat professional boxers," Pimblett said on the Pub Talk show on YouTube.
"He's got unlimited funds, and he hasn't got to do anything else. He hasn't got to go do a job, all he's got to do is box. He gets the best coaches in, he gets the best nutritionists in, and stuff like that.
"Jake Paul is actually not that bad now, even though I think his fights are fixed."
Paul, naturally, was not pleased when he heard Pimblett's accusation
Paul offered to fight the UFC star in a winner-takes-all $1 million sparring session.
On Twitter, Paul said: "I was really wanting to like you but then you come out and say my fight against Anderson Silva was rigged," said Paul.
"I'm sick and tired of this narrative. You're disrespecting your own GOAT of your own sport. You're saying Anderson Silva is a criminal, a fraud. It's stupid."
He then made a proposition.
"Since you wouldn't 'rig a fight,' let's spar. Fly to Puerto Rico, I'll get you a private jet. We can do five three-minute rounds of boxing."
Paul said if Pimblett wins, he'd give him a million bucks.
But if he won, Pimblett would have to join an organization he's establishing, the United Fighters Association, which hopes to help MMA fighters and boxers to get more pay and long-term healthcare.
Pimblett accepted the challenge
Paul's challenge was one Pimblett was swift to accept, albeit with a slight caveat — the sparring session would have to take place at the UFC's Performance Institute in Las Vegas, shortly after his December 10 fight against Jared Gordon in the same city.
"Come to the PI next week and bring $1 million in a bag and I will spar with you," Pimblett told TMZ on Tuesday — the same day Paul issued his challenge.
"I'm in the PI in Vegas on Thursday. But if he wants to wait until after my fight — until the Monday … I'm game."
Replying the next day, on Wednesday, Paul insisted that the unofficial bout takes place near his home in Puerto Rico for January.
"I'm sending you a jet to bring you to Puerto Rico," Paul tweeted. "Both of our teams will film. We spar, five rounds, and then we can do your podcast."
It is unclear if the spar would be filmed live, but it appears that talks are progressing — and, if it were to take place, at $1 million, it could be the richest, most valuable sparring session ever recorded.