{"id":493184,"date":"2026-03-24T20:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493184\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:04:07","slug":"jake-paul-calls-francis-ngannou-an-easy-fight-but-doubts-former-ufc-champ-takes-it-hes-a-terrible-boxer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493184\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Paul calls Francis Ngannou an \u2018easy fight\u2019 but doubts former UFC champ takes it: \u2018He\u2019s a terrible boxer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jake Paul is still healing from the broken jaw he suffered in his knockout loss to Anthony Joshua but he\u2019s still looking ahead at potential opponents for his comeback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Perhaps the name at the top of his hit list is former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who just recently signed to Paul\u2019s Most Valuable Promotions for a return to MMA when he faces Philipe Lines as part of the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card on Netflix on May 16. After signing for the fight, Ngannou immediately started taking aim at Paul after there were talks to put them in a boxing ring together last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The bout never materialized because Ngannou wasn\u2019t interested and Joshua ended up as the opponent instead. But Paul loves the idea of finally facing Ngannou in the ring and he doesn\u2019t believe that would be a tough night at the office for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m definitely going to keep on fighting,\u201d Paul told <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SkySportsBoxing\/status\/2036188048174584263\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sky Sports<\/a>. \u201cWe will see how the jaw continues to heal up. I would say there\u2019s a long list of opponents. I think most recently Francis Ngannou was talking a lot of smack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI think that\u2019s an easy fight for me. I think he\u2019s a terrible boxer. I maybe want to go back up to heavyweight and knock him out like [Anthony] Joshua did and render him unconscious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Following his reign as UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou left the promotion in free agency and signed with PFL while also pursuing a boxing career. In his debut, Ngannou took former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury to a razor-close decision, which included a stunning knockdown during their fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sadly things didn\u2019t go nearly as well in his second fight after Ngannou was brutally knocked out by Joshua inside two rounds. Ever since then, Ngannou has continued to tease his potential return to boxing but no fights have materialized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Perhaps that changes with a possible fight against Paul, although the always outspoken social influencer turned fighter doubts if Ngannou would actually take the risk to fight someone like him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cHe knows I lasted longer than him against Joshua,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get put out. I think he maybe wouldn\u2019t do the fight because deep down he would not want to get embarrassed. To me that\u2019s a fun one on the list.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Paul is still healing from the broken jaw he suffered in his knockout loss to Anthony Joshua&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,913,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-493184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}