Despite his knockout loss against Anthony Joshua on Friday, Jake Paul isn’t done picking fights against heavyweights.
During an appearance on IMPAULSIVE (4:35 mark), Paul called out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou as his potential next opponent, saying the current PFL star “kinda got no chin” and “is low-key soft.”
Paul criticized Ngannou’s performance in his 2024 fight against Joshua when he was knocked out in the second round. The YouTuber feels that since he lasted until the sixth round in Friday’s fight on Netflix, he has the advantage over the veteran MMA fighter.
Before Paul agreed to fight Joshua, Ngannou was floated as a potential opponent for last week’s event, but the 39-year-old made it clear that he had no interest in sharing the ring with him.
“I’m like, ‘No bro, come on. Don’t disrespect me like that,'” Ngannou told TMZ last month of his reaction to being offered a fight against Paul. “They even came out after and said, ‘What if the numbers are good?’ He sent out some numbers. I said, ‘It’s not about the numbers, if it was about the numbers, we could’ve started talking, I would have told you.’ I’m just not interested. It makes no sense for me. It’s not what I’m looking at right now.”
Paul now feels that Ngannou would be more open to a potential fight after seeing the 28-year-old’s performance against Joshua.
“I’ll fight Francis,” Paul declared. “Wow, that’s a good idea. I think maybe now he’ll take it, and be like, ‘Oh, s–t.'”
Paul had previously expressed interest in returning to cruiserweight after facing Joshua, so it will be interesting to see if another heavyweight fight comes to fruition with Ngannou as his opponent.