Jake Paul’s MMA Debut Talk Heats Up as Francis Ngannou Is “Ready.”
Francis Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick has thrown serious fuel on talk that Jake Paul’s first MMA fight could come against the former UFC heavyweight champion, and says Team Ngannou would be ready to take that matchup if the deal makes sense.
Nicksick’s comments on Jake Paul vs Francis Ngannou
Speaking recently about Jake Paul’s long-discussed move into the cage, Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick said the YouTuber-turned-boxer has inadvertently lined himself up with Ngannou as the standout option for an MMA debut. He pointed to Paul’s public callouts and the shared boxing storyline as the key reasons that matchup “sticks out” above the rest.
Nicksick laid out his thinking in detail, highlighting both the business and sporting angles behind the idea. Speaking to Action Network, he said:
“The name that’s always going to stick out there now is going to be Francis, because of the boxing element, and Jake calling out Francis. I don’t know where Francis is at with his negotiations or his contracts with PFL. But, definitely, that’s a fight that would be cool, if the money’s right.
“And after that little dialogue back and forth of these guys talking shit to each other, then you might as well if you want to jump in the deep end, and you want to fight Francis, because I’ll tell you what, man, I’m probably the same size as Jake and when I stand next to Francis, I feel like a little kid.”
Nicksick’s reference to Ngannou’s contract talks comes at a time when the heavyweight’s position in the market has shifted again. The Professional Fighters League confirmed in early March that it had “made the decision to part ways” with Ngannou, ending a high-profile partnership that began in 2023. The promotion praised him on the way out and framed the move as a reset as it continues to “recruit and sign the best athletes in the sport,” while wishing him success in the next phase of his career.
Francis Ngannou’s next move is already set, with the former UFC and PFL champion signing with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions and booking his MMA return against ex-UFC heavyweight Philipe Lins on May 16. The five-round heavyweight bout will serve as the co-main event to Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano on MVP’s inaugural MMA card, which streams live on Netflix from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, marking Netflix’s first live MMA event.
Multiple outlets confirmed that it will be Ngannou’s first MMA fight since his first-round stoppage of Renan Ferreira for the PFL Super Fights heavyweight title in October 2024, and it lands less than two weeks after PFL announced his release, underlining how quickly he pivoted into the MVP–Netflix partnership.
For Nicksick, the intrigue in Paul vs Ngannou lies in how extreme that test would be for a debuting MMA fighter. The coach noted that he is roughly the same size as Paul, yet when he stands next to Ngannou he feels “like a little kid,” a simple visual that captures the size and power gap between a natural heavyweight and a cruiserweight-sized crossover name. Ngannou built his reputation in the UFC as one of the sport’s most dangerous knockout artists, and those heavy hands have carried over into his boxing outings against Fury and Joshua.
If this fight does come together, it would pit one of MMA’s most feared heavyweights against one of combat sports’ most visible influencers in Paul’s first cage appearance, and Nicksick has publicly signalled that Ngannou’s camp is willing to be in that opposite corner.
