Jake Paul has said he wants to fight two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor and claims a meeting next year is a “very realistic” possibility.
Paul knocked out retired UFC fighter Ben Askren in his third professional bout last month and has called out some of the biggest names in combat sports following the victory.
In December, after knocking out former NBA star Nate Robinson, Paul offered McGregor $50m to face him in the boxing ring, and insists he has become one of the biggest names in the sport despite only having three fights so far.
McGregor is set to face Dustin Poirier in a trilogy fight on 10 July at UFC 264, and Paul has claimed he will be able to get McGregor back in the ring the following the year.
“Potentially, it’s very, very realistic for sure,” Paul told The Sun. “I think it depends on how he does against Dustin on July 10.
“I’m more talked about than Conor McGregor at this moment. Kamaru Usman is going back and forth on Twitter with McGregor and the tweets are getting a lot of engagement.
“But then he tweets about me and it’s one of his number one tweets ever. There’s just more buzz around my name right now and Conor just got knocked out, had one of the most embarrassing losses of his career.
“I’ve had two highlight knockouts in a row on two massive pay-per-views. I’m just letting the numbers speak right now.”
Paul, 24, added: “I think right now we’re at the same level of draw in the combat sports world.
“Doing the pay-per-view numbers that we just did, and I sort of carried that event on my back, when we went into that fight, Ben Askren had 500,000 followers.
“No one really knew who he was besides the UFC fans. So it’s like if you put in a name like Jake Paul and Conor McGregor together, it’s a massive event.”
