Jake Paul has sent out an official offer to a "big name opponent" ahead of a planned October ring return.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer spent the first part of the year focusing on the promotion of his fighter Amanda Serrano's legendary undisputed lightweight title fight with Katie Taylor, and chose to stay out of the ring. But he planned to return on August 6, first against Tommy Fury and then against Hasim Rahman Jr, only for the latter fight to fall through a week out.
And he is now plotting to get back in the ring this October, with a host of names in the running to be his opponent. Most notably, kick-boxer Andrew Tate has emerged as a candidate, although he retired from competition in 2016 and made just a brief comeback in 2020.
"We're looking at an October date," Paul said of his new ring return during an appearance on the TimboSugarShow. "Like you said, it's very difficult to train for three months straight and not get any reward out of it, it's a little bit annoying. I guess the reward is how much better I got in the gym working in silence and now all that work is going to be unleashed in my next fight.
"We're looking at an October date and we have a pretty big name opponent that we're excited about. The offer is out and it's looking like we're going to be able to get a deal done."
Paul is currently in Miami, where his new gambling company Betr have set up a content house and headquarters for their 20-person team. But he will return shortly to his Puerto Rican training base, where he will reunite his team, including coaches BJ Flores, Danny Smith and J'Leon Love, who broke up for trips home the day the Rahman Jr fight was cancelled.
The 5-0 boxer is currently walking around at around 195lb, and plans to cut down to get to around 175lb by the time he is campaigning for light-heavyweight titles. He believes that he's going to eventually go down and challenge the likes of Canelo Alvarez, who recently lost his latest effort at 175lb gold against Dmitry Bivol, but first is facing big names.
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He has yet to fight a legitimate boxer during his fighting career, having previously beaten MMA fighters, a basketball star and YouTubers during his professional and white collar runs. He debuted against Deji in Manchester before turning professional to face AnEsonGib; both social media stars with minimal boxing experience.
In fact, 'Gib' was the only opponent Paul has faced who had ever boxed at any level before, having won two white collar bouts in 2018. He also is the only Paul rival who has come back to boxing and recorded a win after being stopped by the Ohio native, defeating Tik Tok star Tayler Holder in an exhibition last summer.
Paul's other opponents were NBA star Nate Robinson, Bellator and ONE FC champion Ben Askren and former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. He was taken the distance by Woodley last August before viciously stopping him in their rematch last December.
