Jake Paul confirms timeline for return to sparring and plans to compete in MMA

Jake Paul has confirmed that he’s just weeks out from a return to sparring as he eyes a move into MMA.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul had his jaw broken by Anthony Joshua when the pair met in a heavyweight super-fight on Netflix in December. He has managed to take care of the highlight without boxing since and even broke viewership records in MMA as a promoter during his break day.

How does Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Jake Paul play out in MMA? 🤔

The YouTuber-turned-boxer desires to make President Donald Trump’s dream fight a reality.

Now, he says that he expects clearance from doctors imminently to get back within the ring for full-contact training after almost eight months out of motion. And he’s even plotting a switch to the cage under his MVP MMA promotion, with Nate Diaz the likely opponent.

Jake Paul reveals plan for return to sparring after broken jaw

It has not been a straightforward road back to boxing for Jake Paul after his jaw injury. He was brutally knocked out by Anthony Joshua in Miami and needed two surgeries to be fully repaired, with sparring still not allowed by a health care provider.

Nevertheless, he finally had some excellent news while appearing on the Pat McAfee show this evening ahead of the ESPYs in Latest York City. “I’m definitely still fighting,” he confirmed. “We’re in talks immediately with multiple opponents and just determining once we’re going to come back back.”

When McAfee quipped that Floyd Mayweather may be an ideal opponent, Paul joked that his old rival ‘needs the cash’. “My whole life is a fever dream,” he noted. “After I was fighting Mike [Tyson] I looked across the ring and I used to be like ‘am I dreaming immediately? This is absolutely freaky.’”

Speaking on the injury, he admitted that “it happens,” and agreed with McAfee’s assessment that he allowed Joshua to ‘just punch me’. “I used to be identical to ‘woah, mustn’t have done that,’” he added before confirming that recovery goes well.

“I’m going to get cleared officially to spar in the subsequent couple of weeks so we’re going to get back to it and carry on fighting. Perhaps I’ll do some MMA, we’ve got a number of stuff with MVP coming soon, big promotions getting more into the entire MMA world.

“The feud between MVP MMA and UFC continues… I’d fight Brock [Lesnar], I wrestled division one in Ohio, it doesn’t get more legit than that. I would like to do MMA, we’ve been attempting to make the Nate Diaz MMA fight occur for a very long time and I believe it’s still on the table so we’ll see what happens.

“I’ve never practiced MMA, but I’ve wrestled and boxed so I just must learn the kicks and jiu-jitsu… I’m part Jewish, so I feel like I’d be good at jiu-jitsu! See what I did there?”