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Jake Paul: 'I am dedicating my life to beating Conor McGregor'

Jake Paul has a new goal in his boxing career after beating a YouTube star, a different YouTube star and an ex-NBA player with no apparent boxing experience.

He wants Conor McGregor.

Yes, that Conor McGregor, the man who once carried two UFC belts simultaneously, held his own against an aged Floyd Mayweather Jr. and is considered one of the most powerful strikers in mixed martial arts. Paul wants to fight him, having called out the Irishman after his most recent boxing win against Nate Robinson.

Paul told ESPN’s Marc Raimondi he thinks the financial reasons to set up the bout are already there:

"I am dedicating my life to beating Conor McGregor," Paul said. "Financially, it already makes sense. Financially, I'm already one of the biggest prizefighters and there's only a couple more bosses to check off and to beat and to conquer."

Of course, Paul is a reasonable YouTube star. He doesn’t expect to get McGregor right away. After all, he told ESPN he’s only been training in boxing for three years now, “taking it very seriously” for the last two.

His alternative plan: pushing UFC president Dana White into letting him face the likes of Jorge Masvidal and Ben Askren, or maybe Bellator’s Dillon Danis.

You know, climb the ladder:

In the meantime, Paul said his plan is to convince UFC president Dana White to let some of White's MMA athletes compete against him in boxing. Paul has already called out the likes of UFC stars McGregor, Jorge Masvidal and Ben Askren, as well as Bellator's Dillon Danis, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion.

"I want to bring MMA fighters into the boxing ring and embarrass them," Paul said.

You probably don’t need us to tell you how a fight between Jake Paul and Conor McGregor (or any of the above fighters) would go. It would probably be quick. If it wasn’t quick, it would probably be bloody. But at least it would be lucrative. Even if Jake Paul trains as hard as your standard professional boxer (unlikely, since he said he plans to focus on his music for now after his last fight), a person with serious fighting experience would be cashing the easiest paycheck of his life by fighting him.

Jake Paul’s boxing ‘career’

Paul’s notoriety as a boxer has reason via three fights. The first was an undercard bout against Deji Olatunji, a.k.a. ComedyShortsGamer on YouTube. That fight ended in a fifth-round TKO win for Paul. The next was Paul’s “professional debut” against another YouTube star, this time AnEsonGib, who lost in a first-round TKO.

Here is what that fight looked like:

And finally, there was the Nate Robinson fight. The infamous, farcical, did-that-really-happen Nate Robinson fight that made serious boxers openly worry about the dignity of their sport. The one in which the former dunk champion repeatedly charged Paul without getting off a punch, as if he didn’t realize it was a boxing match and not an MMA bout.

Paul hasn’t fought a single person with legitimate combat sports experience, so, yes, of course he wants Conor McGregor, who once ended a fight against the best UFC featherweight of all time in 13 seconds.

And yet, the most unbelievable part of all this is that the idea isn’t impossible. Unlike, say, Colby Covington calling out LeBron James, Paul has wisely picked a prospective opponent that a) actually boxes at times b) carries on a similarly ridiculous existence and c) also values big paydays quite highly. A fight between Jake Paul and Conor McGregor would undoubtedly be a massive payday — for reasons other than boxing merit — so Paul has at least selected the right MMA fighter to challenge in preposterous fashion.

McGregor is still pretty busy with this whole UFC thing — he’s scheduled to face Dustin Poirier next month with a UFC lightweight title shot potentially on the line — but who knows what could happen down the line.

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