Sean Strickland claims UFC shut down potential grudge match with Jake Paul

Paul, a fellow YouTuber who has started up a second career as a pro boxer, didn’t take kindly to Strickland’s actions and challenged him to sparring match. In the proposed match, if Paul dropped Strickland he had to get a tattoo of Paul’s sports media company Betr, but if Strickland won Paul would pay him $1 million.

Usually one to not back down from a challenge, Strickland wanted to take Paul up on his offer but was rebuffed by the UFC higher-ups.

“So Jake Paul offered me $1M knowing that it is impossible for me to do that,” Strickland said on his YouTube channel.“And I actually talked to (UFC Chief Business Officer) Hunter (Campbell). I was like ‘Hunter, I will fight this man. You let Conor McGregor fight (Floyd) Mayweather, this is an easier fight, easier money, can I do that?’ Hunter is like the left hand or right hand of (UFC President) Dana (White) … Hunter explained to me that [Paul] sells no fights. When they have fights, they give away tickets, that he doesn’t make money, that his target audience is children, and they don’t buy pay-per-views. So it’s a little depressing, because I thought to myself ‘I’ll take a payday beating up this [freaking] man, seems easy enough.’”

Strickland (28-6) is known as one of the harder punchers in the UFC and widely considered one of the top boxers in the company. 11 of his career wins have come via knockout.

Paul is 8-1 as a pro boxer with five of his wins coming via knockout or TKO, including his most recent bout against Andre August last December. Though Paul’s record may seem impressive, only two of his fights were against actual pro boxers, with the rest coming against a hodgepodge of retired MMA fighters, a retired NBA player and a social media influencer.