Michael Bisping brutally shut down Jake Paul after the YouTuber-turned-boxer mocked his fake eye in a Twitter exchange.
The ex-UFC middleweight champion has found himself in a virtual war of words with social media star Paul, who is a 5-0 professional boxer. It comes after Paul named Bisping on his six-man list of prospective opponents for his ring return, currently slated for August.
The Brit lost all vision in his right eye during his fighting career, and had to cheat on medical tests to be sanctioned to fight during the peak of his UFC career. But he has now disclosed his injuries, and likely wouldn't be sanctioned even if he were to accept Paul's $1million offer for a boxing match between the pair.
Paul mocked Bisping over his eyesight in a tweet after the former champion had joked that being the same size as the YouTuber would rule him out of the running as a possible opponent. This is a common criticism of Paul, who has been considerably bigger than all five of his professional opponents.
Bisping replied to an article quoting Paul's hitlist by saying "Come on Jake Paul you do know I’m about your size? Surely that excludes me from your hit list'," prompting the social media star to hit back with: "I would knock you out worse than Hendo. You’re an easy fight. But show me you can get licensed and I will show you $1M plus PPV."
Paul was referencing Bisping's famous UFC 100 knockout loss to Dan Henderson, which he would later avenge in 2016. He finished the tweet with an emoji of a pair of eyes looking suspicious, jokingly adding "using this emoji because Bisping can’t use it lololololol."
And Bisping slammed Paul by noting that he has the respect of the fight community for his career, which is unlikely to become a reality for the American due to his lack of top opposition.
"Yeah yeah, listen," Bisping replied. "One eye, two eyes. I won a world championship and more importantly the respect of the fight community. Sadly little Jakey, that’s 2 things you’ll NEVER do. Ever. Let that sink in."
Would you be uncomfortable with Michael Bisping fighting Jake Paul given his injury history? Let us know in the comments section below!
Paul has previously officially offered Bisping a $500,000 deal to fight him back in April of last year. But when the Brit asked for the offer to be doubled, the correspondence with his management company Paradigm Sports ceased, and Paul moved on to fight former Bellator champion Ben Askren.
Paul has knocked out the four opponents he has faced at professional level, most recently winning a rematch with Tyron Woodley by way of a vicious sixth round knockout. He had previously been dragged to a split decision by Woodley after early wins over YouTuber AnEsonGib, basketball player Nate Robinson and Askren.
Not one of those opponents would generally fight at cruiserweight, where Paul appears to be naturally most comfortable. Bisping fought as high as 205lb in the UFC's light heavyweight division, which would constitute a very small heavyweight, and would be the first opponent of Jake's natural size he has faced.
