Logan Paul is fresh off one of the most ridiculous boxing matches in history where he took on Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition bout, and only has a single professional fight to his name but he already has one eye on MMA too. He’s very much still at the beginning of his boxing journey with the Mayweather match being the third of any kind after he drew an amateur match and lost his professional debut, both against fellow YouTube personality, KSI. He’s not alone of course as his younger brother Jake Paul has also been exploring a boxing career, although with significantly more success in the ring.
Jake Paul managed to win his only amateur boxing match before turning pro and amassing a 3-0 record so far, although none of his fights have been against opponents with any professional boxing experience. He first defeated another YouTuber, AnEnsonGib, followed by professional Basketball player Nate Robinson, and finally retired MMA veteran Ben Askren. Now, he has his fourth professional boxing match scheduled against Askren’s training partner and former UFC Welterweight World Champion, Tyron Woodley.
Ben Askren was completely right when he said that Boxing was easier than MMA as it was less to worry about, but Logan Paul does have something going for him if he does make the switch. It’s entirely possible that he might actually fare better in MMA, as at one point in time he was on the wrestling team at Ohio University and even qualified for the OHSAA Division I Individual Championships back in 2013. He even alluded to his experience in grappling in the post-fight press conference for the Mayweather match:
“I’d do MMA, for sure, because I am a good grappler. You know, I’m a wrestler at heart.”
“Regardless of the performance that was put on tonight, you know, this is my third fight. Let me get a little good, you know, and then for sure, yeah, I’ll be putting on prizefights. That’s the answer. I’m sure there’s a list of opponents on Twitter, people chirping, saying this, saying that. I’ll pick one. Make them f*cking get embarrassed. I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Logan Paul even recently sparred with MMA veteran and UFC Middleweight title-challenger Paulo Costa in a recent video uploaded to his official YouTube channel. While his striking left a lot to be desired, he actually moved surprisingly well in the wrestling portion of their time together and even Costa said as much himself:
“He’s very good, he surprised me. He has good skills in boxing and very skilled in wrestling — he’s very good. I think he trained a lot of wrestling in college, and he’s very good — he surprised me a lot. Maybe he will make some MMA fights in the future.”
