Michael Bisping has admitted he regrets being "played" during the early part of Jake Paul's boxing career.
Bisping, a former UFC champion, was once offered a fight with the YouTube star, turning down big money for the April date last year which would eventually be filled by Ben Askren.
He says that his management received what amounted to an official offer over email, but when he made that information public, the communication stopped.
And the UFC hall-of-fame member believes that him making the offer public, after having previously told Paul to get in touch with his management, made the YouTuber look like he was in search of legitimate opponents.
"Now he's calling out Khabib," Bisping said during an episode of his podcast Believe You Me . "He did the same thing with me.
"He actually made an official offer and I took the bait and I started talking about it.
"What does that do? It just says to everybody, ' Jake Paul is looking for real fights' but there was never a contract that came through.
"There was an e-mail but there was never a contract - it was an email that came to my manager and I talked about it and then the dialogue stopped.
"I was appalled at Jake Paul's f***ing chess game... He played me."
Bisping, however, likely could not have taken the fight even if he wanted to, given his history of severe eye injuries that has left him with major issues in his vision.
He is managed by Audie Attar of Paradigm Sports, who also had to deal with Paul's efforts to get a fight made with former two-weight world champion Conor McGregor.
The offer came in December 2020 after it began to become apparent that Paul wouldn't be fighting rival Dillon Danis in his third boxing match.
He had just beaten basketball player Nate Robinson on the undercard of Mike Tyson's comeback fight with Roy Jones Jr, and called out Bisping among other top MMA names.
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The Brit responded: “Jake Paul, if you want to f***ing go, Logan Paul, if you want to go, then I guess you have to put your hands in your pockets and man up.
"Because you’re talking s***, you’re contacting my manager saying that you want to fight.
"Well, guess what, buddy? I’m here. I’m going nowhere."
Bisping later told Mirror Fighting that while the money offered was substantial, he pushed back and asked for double, which was never responded to, even with a rejection.
"My agent Audie Attar said to me that his people had been in touch about fighting," he said back in August ahead of Paul's first fight with Tyron Woodley.
"They mentioned a number, we went back and doubled that number, but it wasn't serious negotiations.
"I just threw back a double to see what their response was, but it wasn't like we were sitting down having meetings over it."
