Former UFC light-heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith has backed Jake Paul in his efforts to improve fighter pay in mixed martial arts.
Paul, who has taken the boxing world by storm, has been locked in a heated feud with Dana White in recent weeks, with the pair going back-and-forth on social media.
The YouTube star is angling for fighters to be provided with long-term healthcare and better pay, while White insists his plan is self-serving in an effort to get bigger fights due to his poor pay-per-view numbers.
And Smith believes that Paul's efforts likely are selfless, given that in his own efforts as a promoter he has taken pay cuts to help increase payouts for undercard fighters.
“I think he’s being honest,” Anthony Smith said during a recent episode of Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. “I think he actually does care.
"Here’s the deal, we’ve had these movements where people talk about fighter pay and blah, blah, blah - it’s always people that it benefits, and I’m not meaning just fighters.
"In the history of the sport we’ve had people come from the outside and they want to seem like they’re some saviour and they’re going to come in and they’re going to save us and help us.
"But at the end of the day, every single one of those guys has had their own end game."
And Smith believes that given Paul's already significant riches from his days as a YouTube star and entrepreneur, he has no reason to push the issue for his own gain.
Paul was a multi-millionaire before he ever laced up a pair of boxing gloves, and has a number of business interests that could tide him over if his combat sports career were to suddenly end.
"Jake Paul has nothing to gain here," Smith continued. "So I think I do believe it, it does sound genuine, because it’s a pain in the a**.
"It’s hard to do and he’s still attacking it. He’s continually bringing it up for months and months and he’s not letting it go.”
Paul's rivalry with White has earned him praise from many in the world of combat sports, with ex-middleweight champion Robert Whittaker recently praising his healthcare stance in an interview with Mirror Fighting .
Whose side are you on in the feud, Dana White or Jake Paul? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
He has vowed to quit boxing forever and take a one-fight deal to face Jorge Masvidal in the UFC should White implement a new minimum payout for UFC fighters and offer them all long-term healthcare.
But White has hit back, insinuating that Paul uses steroids, which he has denied at multiple points during his young fighting career.
The YouTuber began boxing with a white collar bout against fellow social media star Deji Olatunji in 2018, before turning professional in 2020 to face AnEsonGib.
And after beating basketball star Nate Robinson and ex-Bellator and ONE FC champion Ben Askren, he launched his own promotional outfit 'Most Valuable Promotions' to stage his bouts with Tyron Woodley.
Paul was paid millions for the fights, but opted to be paid less by broadcaster Showtime so that fighters on the undercard could be given more.
