{"id":831118,"date":"2026-03-17T05:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T05:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/831118\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T05:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T05:32:21","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-eyeing-interesting-jon-jones-mma-fight-as-jake-paul-snubbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/831118\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk eyeing ‘interesting’ Jon Jones MMA fight as Jake Paul snubbed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk has opened the door to a potential crossover clash with Jon Jones in MMA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ukrainian slickster is set to square off against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven on May 23<\/a> in the shadow of Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza.<\/p>\n

\"Oleksandr<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Usyk claims he has three fights left in his pro boxing careerCredit: AFP<\/p>\n

It marks Usyk’s first outing since his five-round demolition of Daniel Dubois<\/a> in July and is expected to be the pound-for-pound king’s antepenultimate professional bout.<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Usyk declared that he intends to face the winner of Fabio Wardley<\/a> and Dubois’ upcoming WBO heavyweight title fight before taking on Tyson Fury<\/a> for a third time to close out his career.<\/p>\n

More recently, Usyk has expressed a desire to transition to MMA.<\/p>\n

There had even been some preliminary discussions with Jake Paul <\/a>over a dust-up in the cage.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON BOXING <\/p>\n

However, Usyk appears to have moved on from the matchup and is now eyeing a far sterner test.<\/p>\n

“A fight with Jake Paul<\/a> in MMA at this stage is not being considered,” \u00a0Lapin told\u00a0Casinostugan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But we are always open to creative and interesting collaborations in the future. <\/p>\n

“If we are talking about crossover fights, a very interesting matchup could be against Jon Jones<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n

“The best heavyweight in MMA against one of the best boxers of his generation could become a very big event if organised properly. <\/p>\n

“Who is the baddest man on the planet?”<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Usyk had considered an MMA fight with Paul, but has now snubbed the YouTuberCredit: Instagram – Jake Paul Jon Jones’ future is up in the air<\/p>\n

Former two-weight UFC<\/a> champion Jones hung up his gloves after defending the heavyweight belt against Stipe Miocic<\/a> last November.<\/p>\n

Days later, he reentered the company’s drug testing pool in pursuit of a spot on the UFC White House card.<\/a><\/p>\n

UFC brass reportedly made an offer to stage Jones vs Alex Pereira<\/a> on the unprecedented bill, but ‘Bones’ turned it down as the number was ‘too low’.<\/p>\n

UFC president Dana White<\/a> then came out and told assembled media: “Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousand times, was\u00a0Jon Jones<\/a>\u00a0even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I’ve told you why I wouldn’t do it, and number two, some guy with Meta glasses on filmed him talking about his hips, [saying] that his hips are so bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run.<\/p>\n

\"Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Jones defended his belt against Miocic in November in his last appearance to dateCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cJon Jones is retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Add that on top of all the other reasons that I wouldn’t.”<\/p>\n

Jones took exception to White’s comments and has since requested a release from his UFC contract.<\/p>\n

“Yes, I have\u00a0arthritis\u00a0in my hip, and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

“So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine, and I’d be on the White House card? <\/p>\n

“That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.<\/p>\n

“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. <\/p>\n

\"Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Jones recently requested a release from his UFC contractCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defences, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. <\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“Especially when, as recently as Friday, UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.<\/p>\n

“If the UFC truly feels like I’m done, then I respectfully ask to be released from my contract today.”<\/p>\n

Boxing schedule<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out\u00a0talkSPORT.com’s\u00a0 boxing schedule<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has opened the door to a potential crossover clash with Jon Jones in MMA. The Ukrainian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4496,17819,58034,12138,5122,212849,79,12137,16,15],"class_list":["post-831118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-jake-paul","tag-jon-jones","tag-mma-news","tag-oleksandr-usyk","tag-sergey-lapin","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116242884463436045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}