Jake Paul just boxed Anthony Joshua on Netflix, banking tens of millions of dollars in the process but suffering an aura-destroying KO loss that broke his jaw in two places (watch the finish here). It didn’t have to go down this way. When Gervonta Davis was pulled from his fight with Paul, Most Valuable Promotions […]
Jake Paul just boxed Anthony Joshua on Netflix, banking tens of millions of dollars in the process but suffering an aura-destroying KO loss that broke his jaw in two places (watch the finish here).
It didn’t have to go down this way. When Gervonta Davis was pulled from his fight with Paul, Most Valuable Promotions looked far and wide for a replacement opponent, and one of the names they called was former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
The fight made dollars, and it made sense. Jake Paul was also very supportive of Ngannou during the Cameroonian’s messy divorce from the UFC. Ngannou hadn’t boxed since a 2024 loss to Anthony Joshua. So why wouldn’t “The Predator” accept a fight against Paul?
MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian is still trying to figure that out himself.
“The whole situation with Francis was very confusing to me,” Bidarian said at the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua post-fight press conference. “He’s done a couple of interviews, back and forth, on terms of how he thought about our conversation.”
Those interviews had Francis confused as to why they’d switch from a smaller fighter like Gervonta Davis to someone like him or Anthony Joshua. He was looking at it through the lens of actual competition and not spectacle, which is clearly what this was.
But Bidarian was careful not to insult Ngannou, because you never know when you might have to give him a call again.
“I think Francis is a revolutionary when it comes to fight sports,” Bidarian said. “He stood up against the UFC, showed what kind of man he is. And this process was, again, just a little bit confusing for me given who I know who he is as a human being.”
Ngannou’s last fight was an October 2024 win in the PFL over Renan Ferreira. That fight promotion is looking to get “The Predator” back in the cage in the coming months, with their heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov as the leading contender. Reports on Ngannou’s PFL contract have that fight being worth roughly $8 million dollars … a far cry from the $80 million he could have made fighting Jake Paul.
Category: General Sports
