Jake Paul shares why he believes MMA won’t last, even with his event on the horizon

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Jake Paul has doubts about MMA’s staying power compared to boxing

Jake Paul is getting involved in the MMA world, but he isn’t convinced it has a bright future.

His promotion is set to debut with an event headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, which will be broadcast on Netflix.

The pair will headline the card and could even be joined by names like Junior dos Santos, Nate Diaz, and Jorge Masvidal.

Jake Paul claims wrestling has contributed to MMA’s decline

Jake Paul hasn’t been shy about criticising Dana White and the UFC, long before his Most Valuable Promotions even dipped a toe into MMA. He’s been on record with his issues around fighter pay and how the company is run, but there’s one aspect of the sport he feels is outside any promotion’s control.

On an episode of Theo Von’s ‘This Past Weekend’ podcast, Paul doubled down on those views, suggesting that part of the issue is “greed” and that it “feels like a shell of what it used to be”.

This time though, Paul wasn’t focused solely on promotional issues. He said that even if the UFC made changes, MMA still faces a fundamental problem that could hurt its long-term appeal.

“MMA hasn’t stood the test of time because the best people in the sport become wrestlers and they just like hold on… which is boring,” Paul said.” No one wants to watch that. So it hasn’t stood the test of time. Boxing has been around since the 1500s, MMA is thirty years [old] and it’s declining.”

He made this point clear despite his own involvement with Netflix in organising an MMA event, stating he would always speak honestly about what he thinks.

The departure of Jailton Almeida from the UFC earlier this year highlighted how some fighters can struggle to keep their spot purely because of their style inside the Octagon.

There’s no doubt that wrestling remains one of fighting’s most effective tools – but not all fans are tuning in just for effectiveness. The UFC understands this well enough to continually encourage more knockouts and submissions from its fighters.