Jake Paul vs. UFC’s Ben Askren Boxing Match Booked for April 17

YouTuber Jake Paul will step back inside the ring for an eight-round boxing match with UFC‘s Ben Askren on April 17, as Triller’s Ryan Kavanaugh confirmed with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. Paul holds a 2-0 record as a boxer, defeating fellow Internet personality AnEsonGib in January 2020 and former NBA basketball player Nate Robinson last November. Askren, an accomplished collegiate wrestler, two-time NCAA Division 1 Champion, US Olympic Team member in freestyle wrestling and former welterweight champion in both Bellator and ONE Championship, made the jump to the UFC in November 2018.

He has since lost two fights — including a five-second KO loss against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239 that still stands as the fastest knockout in the promotion’s history.

Even though Paul had been repeatedly trying to get a money fight with Conor McGregor, Askren stepped up last month as a possible opponent. Askren was one of the many wrestlers Paul called out following his win over Robinson.

“I don’t know if there’s a feud, more than this guy has just said my name a few times,” Askren said while on Submission Radio. “Most people are like, ‘Oh, I don’t know why Ben Askren would stoop to that level.’ It’s like, listen, when I was in high school, one of the fun things to do was, a bunch of dudes would come over to the house, we’d put on some boxing gloves, and we’d try to beat the (expletive) out of each other. Like, we did that for free. We just did that for fun. And now you’re telling me you’re gonna pay me a whole bunch of money to beat up a YouTube star? Like, I don’t know, that just sounds like a fun Friday night to me.”