Jake Paul offered fight for world title against cruiserweight champ Mairis Briedis after watching Lawrence Okolie win
MAIRIS BRIEDIS has offered YouTube sensation Jake Paul a crack at his IBF and Ring Magazine cruiserweight titles.
The Latvian Punisher has been targeting a lucrative showdown with Paul for the best part of six months and even got the social media star’s name tattooed on him.
And the 37-year-old is willing to give The Problem Child the chance to become a world champion in order to twist his arm.
When asked if he’d be willing to put his titles on the line against Paul, Briedis told The Mirror: “Yeah.
“This is a big promotion for the IBF, WBC, WBO and this old championship belt.
“The stocks go up and this is what we need you to know, people need to know these organisations but not for people who already understand it.
“We need to show younger people and future generations. He needs to train and show what happens when you are a good athlete.
“That is why you can’t just sit and play some computer games.
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“If you train and do your best you can travel the world. I come from a family who don’t have money, but I want to thank the sport of boxing.”
Paul, 25, has ruffled plenty of feathers with his brashness and social media antics during his brief stint as a professional boxer.
But Briedis – who was ringside for Lawrence Okolie’s latest defence of the WBO 200lb belt – respects the former Disney star’s hustle, saying: “He is brilliant in social and how he sells his fights and how he gets the huge money in our platform of boxing.
“He isn’t stupid that is why he deletes my comments on his posts, but I believe this fight happens because this is my ideas what I do with my tattoo and song. I made it interesting with this ‘Mario’ surprise.
“We have very good ideas but also step-by-step so we go next to Australia. But also Jake Paul if he says yes we cancel everything and face Jake Paul.”
Briedis hasn’t set foot inside the ring since his third-round TKO victory over Artur Mann last October, while Paul hasn’t competed since his viral KO of ex-UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley last December.
Paul is eyeing a September return to the ring, saying during an appearance on The MMA Hour: “There’s a lot going on in other aspects of my life.
“I’m going to do these press conferences over the next two weeks here to help with the promotion around Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano and I’m very busy on the business side of things with my venture capital fund.
“So I haven’t even got back into the gym or been training at all.
“I need to have a discussion with my coaches but probably I would say August-September maybe. Maybe later. I’m trying to figure it out.
“Obviously if the stars align in some sort of way or I have a change of heart, then things can obviously move around but right now I don’t feel like that motivated to just go right back into another training camp.”
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