Jake Paul is moving on from Francis Ngannou, but not without a few parting shots.
The former UFC heavyweight champion’s name was mentioned as a possibility to replace Gervonta Davis, who was originally
scheduled to fight Paul on Nov. 14 before being pulled due to his involvement in a civil suit in which Davis is accused of battery and kidnapping among other violent crimes. However, Ngannou shot down the suggestion, claiming Paul’s team approached him and he told them, “No, bro. Come on. Don’t disrespect me like that.”
That led to a public back-and-forth between Ngannou and Paul, with both taking written jabs at each other. Ultimately, Paul booked a fight with two-time heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua instead, with the two set to face off in Miami on Dec. 19.
At a kickoff press conference Friday for the Paul-Joshua fight, Paul was asked about Ngannou and he replied his performance will answer any questions about that feud.
“Yeah, when I go in there and do 10 times, 100 times better than Francis, we’ll see how he feels then,” Paul said. “The guy’s a joke. He’s a dumbass. He’s stuck in mud. Francis to me is an easy fight as a boxer. So that’s all we need to talk about with him.”
Joshua, who defeated Ngannou via a brutal second-round knockout in March 2024, echoed Paul’s sentiments.
“With Ngannou, he should be up here if he were serious, he wanted to fight rather than talking,” Joshua said. “Be about it, don’t talk about it. You’ve got something to say and you need to prove yourself in boxing, the best way to do it is to let your hands go. So, for me personally, you didn’t see much talking from me. We come up here and we do the talking in the ring.”
Later at a media scrum, Paul was again given an opening to talk about Ngannou, specifically whether their exchange changed his opinion of him.
“Yeah, I just thought he’s just an idiot,” Paul said. “What are you doing? If you’re so confident, if you feel so disrespected, you’re having all this bad publicity about your name over the past year, year and a half. This is an opportunity to correct that and stop me.
“He’s basically also talking shit to Mike Tyson for fighting me. Like, Francis, you’re nowhere near the legend and you never will be even close to the legend of Mike Tyson and you’re saying it’s disrespectful to get in the ring.”
Watch Paul’s media scrum below.
