UFC News: MMA Fighters Respond To Logan Paul's Aspirations Of Competing

A couple of UFC fighters have either challenged or offered to train Logan Paul following the YouTube celebrity's revelation that he would love to compete in MMA.

Paul competed against fellow YouTuber KSI in a white-collar boxing match over the weekend in Manchester, England. The fight drew a lot of attention and went on to become a financial success, standing to make even more money in a lucrative rematch in the United States after the match was called a draw.

Reported figures claim 20,000 fans were in attendance at the Manchester Arena while 773,000 people paid $10 to stream the pay-per-view event on YouTube, with overall revenue estimated to be $11 million.

And while the 23-year-old had no combat sport experience before the fight, Paul has a background in wrestling from his college days, and recently tweeted that he hoped to use it in a potential UFC fight in the future.

While it might seem crazy, there's a big possibility of this happening. Paul has a huge following, and participating against a professional fighter would result in a lot of pay-per-view buys.

After all, the UFC signed former professional wrestler CM Punk in 2014, whose debut at UFC 203 in 2016 resulted in a one-sided loss, but also contributed to a pay-per-view that received 475,000 buys, the biggest of the year not involving the likes of Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey or Brock Lesnar. Paul competing would ideally garner more interest.

"People want to hate on these, tell me how this is any different than the UFC signing CM Punk? I will wait...," former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub recently said. "Again, you’re going down a tricky road because someone in the UFC offices is watching going, ‘That Logan Paul looked pretty good. How much does he weigh?'"

"You’re bats--t crazy if you don’t think in the UFC office this morning someone went, ‘We’re just spit-balling ideas here, did anyone see the Logan Paul fight? He didn’t look terrible! What numbers did they do? Better than any card we’ve had this year. Should we sign him?' I guarantee there’s a spark interest of signing Logan Paul to the UFC," he said.

Paul's tweet unsurprisingly grabbed the attention of some UFC fighters. Welterweight Mike Perry for one, offered to train the Ohio native at the Jackson Wink gym in Albuquerque. He also showed his respect to him in a later tweet.

UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier also chimed in, challenging Paul to face Oklahoma State University wrestling alumni Kyle Crutchmer.

Interestingly, the notoriously polite welterweight Sage Northcutt also responded with Paul even replying back.

Not every fighter was impressed or interested in facing Paul, however. Darren Till, who will challenge Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title at UFC 228 next month, indirectly tweeted Paul to "f--k off" and not embarrass the sport.

While the purists would prefer not to see Paul in the octagon, fans of the UFC wouldn't be surprised either if it happened, given the importance in recent years to fights that draw, even if one of the participants has no experience whatsoever.