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YouTuber Logan Paul issued a wrestling challenge on social media Monday only to receive responses back from UFC fighters. Paul, who competed as a wrestler in high school, offered “$10,000 to any influencer who can beat me in a wrestling match”.
A little while later is when former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and recently retired UFC welterweight contender Ben Askren chimed in with their offers for Paul.
No, Bisping, the 41-year-old who scored one of the biggest upsets in the UFC title fight history over Luke Rockhold back in 2016, didn’t offer to wrestle Paul himself.
Instead, Bisping appointed his son to the task.
“My son will do it,” Bisping posted.
You can see the interaction below.
But Askren? The 36-year-old wrestling specialist told Paul he’d be happy to pin the YouTuber.
“I’ll pin you in less than a minute, bad hip and all,” Askren posted.
Then Askren tagged Paul again after many of the former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight titleholder’s followers started to get hyped about the idea of seeing their guy Askren share the mat with Paul.
“Shoot apparently lots of people want to see me pin @LoganPaul,” Askren posted.
Shoot apparently lots of people want to see me pin @LoganPaul
Never one to back down, Paul took the time to remind Askren that he was the one who had been on the wrong side of the fastest knockout in UFC history.
Interestingly enough, Askren also responded to a similar challenge from Olympic bobsledder Dallas Robinson on Monday.
So maybe Askren was just super into weird wrestling challenges that day.
YouTuber Paul Is No Stranger to Combat Sports
Paul is no stranger to the combat sports world.
In addition to his high school wrestling credentials, Paul has also competed as both an amateur and professional boxer. Both of those fights were against fellow YouTuber KSI, whose real name is Olajide William Olatunji.
In their amateur fight, Paul and KSI fought to a majority draw after six rounds in August 2018. The two men met in a rematch the following year that was a professional fight promoted by boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and streamed on DAZN. In that fight, KSI scored a narrow decision victory, but both YouTubers accounted well for themselves.
Moreover, Paul has suggested in the past that he would someday like to fight an MMA contest, but nothing in that realm has yet to materialize.
Regardless, his history of wrestling in high school combined with his boxing skillset would at least seem to give him a portion of the toolbox he’d need to be successful in MMA.
Bisping’s Son Isn’t Technically an Influencer But…
Bisping’s son might be a solid wrestler, but he’s surely not an influencer at this point in his life. That alone would probably keep Paul from taking Bisping up on the offer to wrestle his son for $10,000, but Bisping could maybe turn the tables on Paul by suggesting the 25-year-old wrestle the father instead.
That or maybe Paul could wrestle Askren.
After all, both Bisping and Askren have well over 645,000 followers apiece on Twitter alone, so that means those two UFC fighters definitely fits into the category Paul suggests.
On top of that, both Bisping and Askren could potentially help Paul shore up his wrestling game, especially as it pertains to the many nuances that exist between the form and function of amateur wrestling and MMA fighting.
Honestly, if Paul is serious about MMA, he could make worse friends than decorated UFC champs.
Besides, maybe something amazing could spring from all this social media fun. With Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. postponing their surprise 2020 megafight until later this year, the promoters would now seem to have ample time to add more wild and crazy undercard fights to the bill.
Logan Paul’s younger brother Jake Paul is already supposed to be competing on the card against ex-NBA star Nate Robinson.
That’s so 2020, but not nearly as 2020 as Logan Paul vs. Bisping or Askren could be.
There have been plenty of worse things to happen this year than either of those things would be.
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UFC Fighters Respond to YouTuber’s Challenge