Conor McGregor tried to troll Jake Paul online but the creator responded in a brutal fashion, going scorched-earth on the former two-weight UFC champion.
The 33-year-old McGregor and Paul, 25, have been at each other’s throats on and off for a year or two, with the Irishman an unrelenting target of the internet celebrity now since he turned his attention to combat sports after YouTube.
Paul is a novice fighter with a pro boxing record of four knockouts from five wins against zero defeats.
He’s mostly been feasting on easy targets — a fellow creator, a retired sportsman, or past-prime MMA fighters not known for their striking — but, as Insider reported last week, he’s turned a critical corner in his career as he’s now lining up actual boxers as opponents.
Regardless, McGregor brandished Paul as a “nobody,” Monday on Twitter.
Photo by Conor McGregor / Twitter
McGregor responded to an MMA Fighting interview with Paul in which the up-and-coming fighter suggested a lucrative bout involving the former featherweight ruler is a foregone conclusion as it would generate a nine-figure payday for them both.
McGregor doubted the claim by suggesting, without evidence, that Paul’s pay-per-view fights so far have flopped at the box office. “You’ve two fights and done 70k buys,” he said.
Embroiling Paul in an internet feud was only going to go one way
Paul’s internet smarts have foiled numerous athletes in combat sports already, and McGregor is no exception.
The youngster’s escapades border on fearlessness as he posts lengthy videos with high-production value across social media — most of them in a mocking manner.
Five months ago he famously made a three-minute diss track flaming the UFC boss Dana White. As of mid-July, it has been watched 4.6 million times on Paul’s YouTube channel alone.
Photo by Jake Paul / YouTube
Shortly after McGregor called Paul a nobody on Twitter, Paul put a response of his own into the public realm — a two-minute clip filmed on what appeared to be a private jet that was very much NSFW.
“Conor, Conor, Conor — you’re more active on Twitter than you are in the Octagon,” he said at the beginning of the footage, before accusing McGregor, without evidence, of taking the performance-enhancing drug Trenbolone, of being unfaithful to his partner Dee Devlin, and for spending too much time drinking.
“You haven’t won a fight in five fucking years, and the last time you did was against ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, who hasn’t won a fight against anyone since fighting you.
“I’m a nobody, you say in this tweet. Well, yeah, you’re right,” said Paul. “I’m just a kid from Ohio. I really am a nobody.
“But this is where you fought in your sixth fight, there’s literally two people in the crowd, and this is where I’m going to be fighting my sixth fight — Madison Square Garden.”
He then posted these photographs of what he claimed was McGregor’s early combat sports years, compared to his:
Photo by Jake Paul / Twitter
“He’s another fun fact,” Paul continued. “In your 18th pro fight you made $150,000. In my fifth fight, I made $15 million.”
Paul then detailed his success at the box office, claimed he shared “millions of dollars with underpaid fighters,” and then continued to mock and belittle McGregor.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with me, Conor,” he said. “This is my game, and there’s a new king in town. I’m running shit, now.
“If we went
net worth
for net worth, I would shit on you. Put the bottle down, get off of Twitter, get back in the ring — and shut the fuck up. Fuck you, Conor.”
Watch the clip in its entirety right here:
—Jake Paul (@jakepaul) July 12, 2022
Speaking to Insider in 2020, after he’d only fought one pro boxing bout, Paul said he’d be confident of annihilating McGregor in the ring as, he claimed, his rival was “washed-up.”
“I’m bigger than Conor, I weigh more than Conor, and he’s out of his prime, sort of washed-up,” Paul told Insider.
“Me and Conor would be an even fight,” he said. “And when the fight happens, everyone will read this back and say, ‘Damn, that kid’s out of his mind, but he called this. Predicted this.'”
Photo by Getty Images
Months later, McGregor said he’s “certainly a viewer” of Jake Paul.
From there, the rivalry escalated, and Paul mercilessly mocked McGregor — even when the fighter suffered a horrific broken leg during a doctor’s stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier.
McGregor was rumored to return to ultimate fighting with the UFC earlier this month, according to Insider sources, but his expected return has now been pushed until later this year, or at the start of 2023.
