Eddie Hearn makes Wayne Rooney vs Jake Paul prediction

Eddie Hearn has backed Wayne Rooney to get the better of Jake Paul if the former Manchester United captain and the YouTuber do end up meeting in the ring.

It was reported by The Mirror this week that Rooney had held talks with Misfits over making his boxing debut.

Paul has turned his hand to boxing in recent years and has won eight of his nine professional fights, with his one loss coming to Tommy Fury last year.

Asked by DAZN who he would want to see Rooney make his boxing bow against, Hearn said: “Jake Paul.

“I’ve actually said before Wayne Rooney against Jake Paul at Old Trafford, it’s a huge event and I back Wayne Rooney to win it.”

It’s not the first time Hearn has spoken about Rooney facing Paul, after he revealed last year that he had spoken about the possible bout with Rooney himself.

“I’ve actually spoken to Wayne a few times about the Jake Paul fight,” Hearn said.

“Normally, if he has a couple of glasses of red [wine] he’ll fire in a message to me at night going, ‘Listen, I wanna fight that geezer.’

“Wayne can fight, he had a couple of amateur fights – but him against Jake Paul at Old Trafford, that’s actually a makeable fight.”

Rooney was quick to play down talk that he could enter the ring this week, insisting his current focus is on getting back into football following his sacking by Birmingham.

“They (Misfits) have just been in touch to fight, yeah,” Rooney told Sky. “There’s been a few. Obviously, Misfits have been in [touch] and it’s been all over the news or whatever. I want to focus on getting back into management, that’s my focus. I’ve seen it all over the last couple of days, all the headlines, but my main focus is getting back into football.”