Jake Paul is still angling to fight Francis Ngannou.
According to Paul, that matchup was being discussed after Ngannou was contacted by Most Valuable Promotions CEO Nakisa Badarian to step in and fight Paul on less than three weeks’ notice after Gervonta Davis withdrew from their November matchup. Ngannou was disrespected by the idea then.
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Instead, Paul ended up facing former two-time unified heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua in December, a fight that left him with a broken jaw in two places.
“I’m definitely going to keep on fighting,” Paul told Sky Sports Boxing. “We will see how the jaw continues to heal up. I would say there’s a long list of opponents. I think most recently Francis Ngannou was talking a lot of smack. I think that’s an easy fight for me. I think he is a terrible boxer.”
Ngannou is 0-2 in boxing, losing a controversial decision to Tyson Fury, then a knockout to Joshua. The former UFC heavyweight champion was dropped multiple times before getting finished in Round 2, whereas Paul managed to drag Joshua to Round 6 before the stoppage.
“I’ll maybe want to go back up to heavyweight and knock him out like Joshua did, and render him unconscious,” Paul said. “He knows I lasted longer than him against Joshua. I didn’t get put out. So, I think he maybe wouldn’t do the fight because deep down he would not want to get embarrassed. So to me, that’s a fun one on the list.”
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For now, Ngannou is gearing up to make his MMA return under Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. He takes on Philipe Lins on the Rousey vs. Carano card on May 16 from Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., and streams on Netflix.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jake Paul: Francis Ngannou an ‘easy fight for me’
