(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new information.)
Jake Paul took a shot at Francis Ngannou for scoffing at his fight offer to replace Gervonta Davis.
Ngannou was contacted by Most Valuable Promotions CEO Nakisa Badarian to step in and fight Paul on less than three weeks’ notice before MVP and Netflix canceled the Nov. 15 boxing match Monday. The offer apparently didn’t excite Ngannou, who said he was disrespected by it.
Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, dropped both of his appearances in boxing. He lost a controversial split decision against Tyson Fury in October 2023 before he was brutally knocked out by Anthony Joshua five months later. Ngannou’s most recent combat sports appearance came in the cage for PFL as he defeated Renan Fereira by TKO in October 2024, but he’s looking to lace up his boxing gloves for his next bout – just not against Paul.
Paul, who’s advocated for Ngannou during his feud with UFC CEO Dana White, didn’t take the rejection well and put Ngannou on blast in a post on X.
“Dear Francis – just say you already got humiliated in boxing and are scared to lose to Jake Paul,” Paul wrote. “I accept that. You are light work my friend. Stuck in mud.”
It didn’t take long for Ngannou to fire back at Paul.
“Choose your words wisely boy,” Ngannou wrote back on X, quote-tweeting Paul’s message. “I agree that you need someone to discipline you for what you did to Mike Tyson, but stay in your lane.”
That got a quick response from Paul, who called Ngannou a “fake holier than thou actor.”
MVP and Netflix announced Monday that the exhibition boxing match between Paul and Davis, which scheduled for Kaseya Center in Miami, has been canceled in the wake of Davis facing allegations that he attacked a woman in a strip club.
Paul, who went off on Davis, is expected to compete before the end of 2025.
