PFL ambassador Jake Paul declares MMA is 'becoming a sh*ttier version of boxing'

Are we sure Jake Paul still has a vested interest in the PFL? You might be hard-pressed to believe so after he shared some unflattering thoughts about mixed martial arts as a sport compared to boxing.

In an interview with All the Smoke Fight released Wednesday, Paul, a YouTuber-turned-professional boxer, spelled out how boxing continues to grow while MMA experiences a downswing because, in his words, it’s “becoming a sh*ttier version of boxing.”

“MMA is not what it was. That’s the truth of the matter,” Paul said. “Boxing is bigger than ever. The biggest sporting event of the year in 2024 was boxing (his fight with Mike Tyson) whereas MMA is becoming a sh*ttier version of boxing essentially.”

While Paul, for better or worse, has become one of the faces of boxing in the past few years, his words are curious considering he signed a contract with the PFL in January 2023, which made him a partner in the MMA promotion. As recently as last October, Paul took part in promoting the PFL’s “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view headlined by Francis Ngannou’s highly anticipated return against Renan Ferreira.

Paul’s interest in MMA – either as a business venture or competing, which he’s teased in the past – could be fading as he views the sport in an apparently negative light.

“It’s kickboxing,” Paul said. “Because everyone is getting good takedown defense, and everyone is a black belt in jiu-jitsu, so there’s no more submissions really. There’s not a lot of takedowns – and even if there is, it’s fu*cking boring. But everyone is good at takedown defense, so it’s literally kickboxing.

“Guess who the biggest start of the sport is in MMA? Alex Pereira, who’s a kickboxer. He’s knocking everyone out. And he’s the best one because no one can take him down, no one can submit him, so he’s just knocking everybody out. But the UFC has less significant strikes per round (than boxing), and that’s with 5-minute rounds. So boxing is going to stand the test of time, because it has since the 1500s. Six hundred years of boxing. I’m not long on MMA because it’s becoming boxing.”