Jake Paul attended Saturday night’s UFC 261 event in Jacksonville, Fla., and it’s safe to say he wasn’t greeted all that warmly by either fans or UFC legend Daniel Cormier.
Cormier was working the event as a commentator, and has recently had words on social media with Paul, taking particular offense to Paul and Paul team member J’Leon Love acting — in his opinion — disrespectfully toward Tyron Woodley at the Triller Fight Club pay-per-view on April 17.
UFC fans let Paul and his crew know how they felt during a fight, loudly chanting “fuck Jake Paul”:
Joe Rogan made note of the chant on commentary, and Cormier said that he’d pointed and Jake to say “don’t play with me, because I’ll smack him in the face.”
Cormier did have words with Paul, which Jake put on Twitter. You can’t hear anything, but you can see the altercation:
Cormier has actually been a pretty fair analyst with regard to Paul, acknowledging that Paul has an understanding of the basic fundamentals of boxing, which has allowed him to “look as he’s looked” against opponents who do not.
But the 42-year-old Cormier, who is a genuine MMA legend and was UFC champion at light heavyweight and heavyweight, doesn’t think Paul deserves to fight him, and doesn’t think Paul would actually sign off on doing so anyway.
“This dude would never fight me. I would kill him. Why would I ever fight someone like that?” Cormier said after Paul beat Ben Askren. “But my immediate reaction was, ‘I can’t stand this kid.’ So it works! I can’t stand this kid! But who punches down? You don’t punch down to somebody. I’m the guy that’s in the Hall of Fame. I’m the guy that won two world championships at the same time.
“I’m not gonna punch down to some kid that’s on YouTube that’s, like, ‘Fight me!’ Like, why? What have you done to earn the right to fight me? So, no, it’s silly and stupid. But I would like him to fight Tyron (Woodley). I would like to see him fight somebody more real. Don’t fight Ben Askren at 190, bloated.
“Fight a middleweight (185 lbs in MMA). Fight Luke Rockhold! Let me see you fight Luke Rockhold or somebody like that. And then I will not only say that you have base skills, I will say you’re a real fighter. Because right now it’s all pretend. It’s all pretend.”