Jake Paul ‘very confident’ Anderson Silva will help create fighter’s association: ‘I think he’s a man of his word’
Ahead of his boxing match with Anderson Silva, Jake Paul suggested a friendly wager with the MMA great: If Silva won, Paul would then face him in a kickboxing bout, but if he won, Silva would help Paul to create a fighter’s association to help MMA fighters, specifically UFC fighters, get better pay and better healthcare. And after defeating Silva by unanimous decision, Paul says it’s full steam ahead with the fighter’s union.
“I’m very confident it happens and Anderson will help,” Paul recently told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I think he’s a man of his word, and this is needed. It’s been needed for so long. Right now we’re talking with lawyers to get everything set up and figure out the structure and start to ideate on what this union looks like and how it will be operated.”
One of the cornerstones of Paul’s foray into combat sports has been his aggressive campaign against Dana White and the UFC on the issue of fighter pay and healthcare.
Paul tried to bargain with White (multiple times), released a diss track, and even invested in the UFC’s parent company, Endeavor, allegedly, all in the name of bringing about change to the UFC’s pay structure, thus far to no avail.
But despite Paul’s outward support of UFC fighters, and his lobbying for better pay and healthcare, a number of fighters still do not think kindly of him. That could present a problem for a man attempting to unionize fighters.
But according to Paul, that’s where Silva comes in.
“I think that’s where people like Anderson Silva joining really helps, because they respect him,” Paul said. “I think that fighters, regardless of if they hate me or love me, I’m trying to help them. They just should see that because I’m continuing to help fighters nonstop. They should see the things I’ve done for Amanda Serrano, the situation she was in.
“I just want to help. So they can hate me, or not really even respect me, but we should be on the same team. That’s the whole point of this union — let’s band together and be strong as one. I might not even like a certain fighter that wants to be in the union, but it doesn’t matter. I’m putting my ego aside because this is going to benefit all of us.”
Should Paul go through with his ambitious idea to create a fighter’s union, he will not be the first to try. And even if he doesn’t succeed, Paul still may end up doing the one thing he’s been so clearly intent on from the beginning: Disrupting Dana White.
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