Insider says Conor McGregor could face Jake Paul instead of older brother Logan in rumored boxing showdown hosted by $96-billion worth Indian tycoon
A massive rumor about a fight between Conor McGregor and Logan Paul has been circulating in the media lately. A battle between 'The Notorious' and the WWE star, who are both under contract with TKO group holdings (through the UFC and WWE), will certainly generate massive interest.
The rumor, which was addressed and verified by McGregor via X, involves the funding of an Indian billionaire family.
However, some believe the Irishman should fight Logan's younger brother, Jake Paul, instead.
In a recent episode of the Boys in the Back segment of The Ariel Helwani Show on YouTube, the veteran MMA journalist and his co-hosts speculated on a Conor McGregor-Jake Paul fight.
Helwani analyzed that since Jake has a lot of demands to fight McGregor — mostly pointed towards Dana White and the UFC — the next best thing would be Logan.
WWE and the UFC are under the TKO group holdings umbrella, which would make it possible to have Logan and McGregor fight.
Helwani said:
"There is a very rich and very powerful and very influential family in India known as the Ambani family that wants to get involved in a mega event. Are they looking to make a promotion? Are they looking to start something? Are they looking to even do something akin to what Turki [Alalshikh] has done in Saudi Arabia? Not necessarily".
Helwani continued:
"They want to put on an event and they're thinking to themselves, 'Who are the biggest names? Who can make this into the biggest event? And you can make a very strong case that you know the two names that would attract all the different sort of fan bases, if you will, would be Conor McGregor and Jake Paul."
Check out Ariel Helwani's comments below (2:05:25):
Ariel Helwani and co-hosts speculate on whether or not the UFC will allow Conor McGregor to fight either Logan or Jake Paul
If you talk about PPV buys and money-generating skills, no one beats Conor McGregor. Add in Jake Paul, a man who is considered by some to be McGregor's successor in the art of self-marketing, and you have a fight that might very well break all kinds of PPV and viewership records.
The problem lies in the fact that Paul is with MVP (Most Valuable Promotions), an entity outside the UFC's TKO umbrella. Negotiating with him and his promotion would be tough.
Helwani said (2:05:32):
"But there's a lot of issues there. Again Jake doesn't want to negotiate if the UFC doesn't give the blessing and Conor can't do this fight unless the UFC gives its blessing because he still has two fights left on [his] deal... But as of right now, I know that both fight entities, both fighter parties are interested. The question is, can they get over all the hurdles [and] roadblocks in order to make this into a reality?"
Helwani's co-host added a very insightful question:
"Conor McGregor needs the UFC's blessing clearly, but if he gets that blessing, would the fight still be Logan versus Conor? Because at that point now the UFC has blessed it. Why would Jake [Paul] not be the one in the fight at that point?"