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Michael Bisping has responded to news that Jake Paul referenced him as a potential future opponent and his tweet has re-ignited a feud between the two that's been smoldering for months.
Jake Paul's next boxing bout is set to take place in August, but as of this moment no opponent has been named. In a recent interview with Teddy Atlas, Paul listed off a number of potential names, including Floyd Mayweather, Anderson Silva, and Michael Bisping.
That got Bisping's attention, and he took to Twitter to declare:
"Come on @jakepaul you do know I’m about your size? Surely that excludes me from your 'hit list'"
Paul fired back, saying:
"I would knock you out worse than Hendo. You’re an easy fight. But show me you can get licensed and I will show you $1M plus PPV… 👀 (using this emoji because Bisping can’t use it lololololol)"
Jake Paul is referring to the fact that Bisping only has one eye due to damage he took over years of fighting in the UFC. For the final bouts of his career, Bisping cheated his way through the pre-fight medicals and won the UFC middleweight title while blind in one eye.
'Hendo' refers to Dan Henderson, who knocked Bisping out brutally at UFC 100 in 2009.
Michael Bisping was in negotiations to fight Jake Paul in 2021
This isn't the first time Michael Bisping has ended up on a Jake Paul 'hit list'. Bisping revealed that Paul's management was speaking to him before they ended up signing a deal to fight Ben Askren in April 2021. In an interview with LowkickMMA, Bisping said:
“I got offered a contract. It wasn’t enough money. They made an offer and it was some decent cash. But, if I’m going to make a fool out of myself by boxing a YouTuber, then I’d want a bit more for that. ... I think he just used me to try and make it seem like he was looking for real challenges. Because we got sent an offer and we countered with more than double. And we never heard anything again, and then we got the news that he’s fighting Ben Askren.”
Beyond the money issue, there's the question of where Michael Bisping would be allowed to fight now that the world knows he only has one functional eye. No athletic commission in the United States would allow him to compete, but there are plenty of countries around the world without sanctioning bodies to get in the way.
