If there was any concern the trash talking and name calling between Dana White and Jake Paul would start to taper off, you can put those worries to rest. The UFC head man recently appeared on boxing favorite Teddy Atlas’ show, and of course, the topic of the social media star turned boxer came up. White used the opportunity to reiterate he won’t lend out any of his UFC fighters and proposed a challenge related to drug testing.
Apparently Dana White is willing to undergo drug testing for cocaine if Jake Paul is willing to undergo drug testing for steroids. You can check out the direct quote from White that he dropped in the conversation with Teddy Atlas below…
I’ve got a challenge for Jake Paul. This guy keeps saying that I’m a cokehead. He can randomly cocaine test me for the next 10 years if I can randomly steroid test him for the next 2.
For anyone who is outside the loop on all the back-and-forths between these two men, the above quote probably sounds ludicrous. Given all that has transpired, however, it actually makes a lot of sense. Let’s back up a little bit and talk about how we got to this incredibly weird place.
A few years ago, Jake Paul’s brother Logan Paul put together some celebrity boxing matches. Jake fought on the undercard and actually looked quite good. So, he turned professional and starting fighting on his own. He brutally KOed ex-NBA player Nate Robinson in the undercard of the Mike Tyson/ Roy Jones Jr fight and started calling out anyone famous who would listen including Conor McGregor. UFC boss Dana White was extremely dismissive of Paul and made numerous comments about how he’s not a real fighter. He trashed his skills and said he’d never fight in the UFC.
Jake Paul took those initial comments very personally and started increasing his trash talking, against Dana White, against the UFC and against Conor McGregor. He publicly talked about UFC fighters allegedly being underpaid. He bashed McGregor’s wife, and he even dressed up as White for Halloween, inferring that he has a cocaine problem. He also made the claim more directly in a recent interview. At one point his trash talking against White and the UFC got so aggressive, Logan Paul asked him to tone it down.
Obviously this wager is never going to happen. Neither of the men has anything to gain by subjecting themselves to drug testing. It’s not like either is perceived to have some major issue here and needs to save their reputation. That being said, I love the continued back-and-forth. Sports are always better with a little tinge of animosity, and there is clearly plenty of middle fingers to go around here.
Exactly who Jake Paul might face next is anyone’s guess. He wants to fight one of the bigger names in the UFC like McGregor, Nate Diaz or Jorge Masvidal, but White has made it clear that’s not going to happen. The original plan for his last fight was to square off with Tommy Fury before he had to pull out and be replaced with Tyron Woodley. He could go back to that well, but with all the buzz after his recent KO, I think he needs to shoot a little higher. Maybe the rumors about Cesar Chavez Jr will turn out to be true. Maybe Daniel Cormier will step up. At this point, all we know for sure is there will be plenty of trash talk between Paul, White and whoever else ends up getting involved.
