Ex-UFC champ reveals offer to fight Jake Paul rival on Mike Tyson card

Former UFC champion Jose Aldo has revealed that he had an offer to fight on the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson undercard, and it was supposed to be against one of Jake’s newest rivals.

In mid-March, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson shocked the world when they announced that they’d be fighting. Not only is there a 31-year age gap between the two, but they’d been friendly for a while and previously played down the idea of them actually fighting. 

Fast forward a few months and things are starting to take shape. The pair will be fighting at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are co-main eventing the card, and other fights are in the works. 

One fight that won’t be happening, it seems, would have involved Jose Aldo. The former UFC Featherweight champion has revealed that he was offered a fight on the undercard, but he’s waiting to see if he’s got something cooking in the Octagon first. 

“As far as boxing is concerned, I actually had a fight scheduled coming up on the Jake Paul card. He had invited me to be part of a great show, the spectacle that it’s going to be, but I’m going to have to sit down and wait for what the UFC offers me,” the Brazillian fighter told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. 

“Because of the love and the respect I have for the organization, I want to listen to them. Listen, I do feel very confident in the boxing ring, I feel good doing boxing, I feel have things to accomplish there, but I need to step back and evaluate the UFC’s proposal because my dream was always to be in this organization.

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The 37-year-old added that the fight would have been against Indian boxer Neeraj Goyat too, but it’s “out of the question for now.”

Now that Jake and ‘Iron’ Mike have kicked off the press events for the fight, the rest of the ard will take shape before long. And with two offers out to former UFC fighters, including Mike Perry, it seems likely that crossover fights will play some part.