Jake Paul Trash Talks UFC Champ Amanda Nunes, Has His Eye On Another Opponent

Jake Paul looking like a villain, smoking a cigar while leaning against his car.

Jake Paul can’t stop, won’t stop running his mouth. The controversial YouTube star’s own brother called him “dumb” after he went in on former UFC Champion Conor McGregor’s wife. Now he’s back with a new impromptu interview that both lights up UFC Women’s Champion Amanda Nunes and takes aim at a new opponent who Paul apparently thinks could be a good stepping stone to eventually fighting McGregor.

Jake Paul was apparently out and about earlier this week when he ran into a TMZ cameraman. Naturally, the cameraman asked him about Amanda Nunes. The champion said she’d be down to fight Paul after UFC boss Dana White floated the idea, but the social media star apparently isn’t into the idea because she has “shitty engagement” and there’s not enough personal history… like say what he has with Dillon Danis. Check out this quote…

I wouldn’t fight her. Waste of time. No one knows who she is. She has 1 million followers on Instagram, shitty engagement. There’s not a lot of hype there… Plus there’s no history. I want to knock out Dillon (Danis) because we’ve been talking shit back and forth for two years. I hooked up with his girlfriend. He’s all butt hurt about it. There’s history there, and Dillon is Conor’s best friend, and I ultimately want Conor.

Quick backstory here. Dillon Danis is buddies with Conor McGregor. He’s also a mixed martial arts fighter, and he’s been getting into it a bit with Paul, both on social media and in real life. The two have fired some shots back and forth over girlfriends/ ex-girlfriends, and in an ultimate troll move, Paul drove by one of his video shoots and threw water balloons.

It seems like this Jake Paul/ Dillon Danis fight might actually come together. Or if not, there are no shortage of other mixed martial arts fighters and boxers lining up to take their shot. If so, it’s really going to be a sink or swim moment for Paul. Let's say the Danis fight does come together. There will definitely be some interest from the general public, but it’s hard to imagine it getting anywhere close to the $50M number he’s floated for a possible fight with McGregor. So, in some ways, this next one may wind up being the fight to get to the next fight, but Danis is a real fighter with a lot of experience, who has trained extensively with McGregor. No offense to former NBA player Nate Robinson who Paul knocked out, but this fight would be a completely different level of hard. And if he loses, it’s hard to imagine the momentum continuing. You can’t lose against McGregor’s training partner and then get a fight against McGregor. That wouldn’t make any sense.

Regardless, what Jake Paul is going to continue doing is generating publicity for Jake Paul. He’s a master at the hype game, and he has been in rare form since his match with Nate Robinson. I’m a bit surprised he’s not sticking with former athletes and non-combat sport celebrities to fight, but if he does fight Danis and he can somehow beat him, look out. The buzz will be extremely loud and not just because Paul will be screaming taunts at everyone himself.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.