Michael Bisping isn’t opposed to boxing Jake Paul next time out.
Bisping ended his career on back-to-back stoppage losses to Georges St-Pierre to lose his belt and was knocked out by Kelvin Gastelum. Since then, he retired from competition and has been focusing on commentary but recently, Jake Paul called him out and Bisping says he isn’t opposed to taking that fight.
“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,” Bisping continued.
“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.”
It’s uncertain if the UFC would allow Bisping out of his contract if he has fights left to take this match. Along with that, his eye would no doubt hinder him from getting cleared.
Yet, Michael Bisping says if Jake Paul can find a place where he gets this fight cleared he will gladly throw it down with him.
“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 lot’s of places where they will not care, lot’s 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. Lot’s 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.”
