Jake Paul appears to be warming up to the idea of a boxing match with Anderson Silva.
The 25-year-old YouTube boxer described Silva as one of his first celebrity idols and said it would be an honor to share the ring with the UFC middleweight legend.
“Yes, definitely,” Paul told Ariel Helwani when asked whether he would be interested in Silva as his next opponent (h/t MMA News). “Definitely. I would love that fight.”
“And interesting story, I think he was the first celebrity I ever saw,” he continued. “So right when MMA was blowing up, my dad was a super big fan and we went to this local MMA event. And they must have paid Anderson Silva to come because it was like in Ohio, so I don’t know why he would have been there.
“But I actually asked for his autograph. And we took a picture with him…I’m maybe like 12 years old. But I think he was the first celebrity that I met. So it would be fun to bring it back full circle and fight someone who was, I guess, one of my first idols.”
Paul is 5-0 in boxing with standout wins against Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren. Silva, on the other hand, is 3-1, with recent victories over former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.
Silva is widely considered one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and has shown, even at age 46, he is still a force to be reckoned with in boxing or MMA.
