Dana White shoots down Jake Paul-Jorge Masvidal fight, offers steroid test to YouTuber
Don't expect Jake Paul-Jorge Masvidal anytime soon.
As if Masvidal publicly rejecting a $5 million offer from Paul for a boxing match wasn't enough, UFC president Dana White emphatically shut down the possibility of Paul taking on his fighters under contract during an appearance on "The Fight with Teddy Atlas" podcast.
His full response when asked if there was any scenario in which he allows Masvidal or Nate Diaz to fight Paul:
“No. You notice he wants to f***ing fight everybody that’s not in his weight class, guys that are older and all this bulls***. Go find a boxer. Go hump somebody else’s leg, you goofball.”
Paul threw down the gauntlet with Masvidal and Diaz last week, after both were in attendance for his knockout of former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. Specifically, he offered Masvidal $5 million guaranteed plus a cut of pay-per-view revenue to enter the ring, claiming it would be the most he had ever earned for a fight.
Masvidal quickly responded, calling the offer "chump change" and counter-offering to fight for $20 million, a figure he said he believed White and the UFC would accept.
Fighter pay has been something of a sore spot for White over the last few years, something Paul has frequently taken aim at while trying to carve out his lucrative space in the world of combat sports. White is correct that Paul has yet to fight an actual boxer, as his opponents so far consist of two YouTubers, two MMA fighters and a basketball player.
Paul has mocked other aspects of White as well, such as an alleged recreational choice that White turned around on Paul in the same interview:
“I got a challenge for Jake Paul. So this guy keeps saying that I’m a cokehead. He can randomly cocaine test me for the next 10 years if I can randomly steroid test him for the next two.”
There have been some rumblings about Paul and drug testing before, but nothing definitive has been reported about steroid use.
