Nothing says “Christmas Spirit” like Jake Paul fighting Darren Till.
Jake Paul has not boxed since last December, when he was brutally stopped by Anthony Joshua, shattering his jaw in multiple places. Since then, Paul has been out of the ring while he recovers, but recently, “The Problem Child” teased his return to the sport, with a hit list of opponents.
Speaking with Jack Figg of The Sun Sport recently, Paul’s business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, revealed that from that list, former UFC fighter Darren Till is someone they’ve been in active negotiations with about booking a fight.
“Darren Till is definitely one of the names that Jake put out there on his list,” Bidarian said. “He’s definitely one of the names that we’ve been speaking to. The date, time, and location depend on how quickly I can get the opponent done, and the distribution of the fight appropriately figured out based on that opponent.
“So, if it takes us another three, four, five weeks to figure this out, there’s no fighting this year. It’s probably early next year. If we figure it out in the next 24 hours, we’ll hopefully get a fight in this year. But I can’t tell you today if it’s one or the other. But we’re trying our best to get it done.”
Till has been floated as a potential opponent for Paul for years, basically since the day he left the UFC in 2023 to pursue boxing. While that fight has yet to come to pass, Till has stayed busy outside of the cage, going undefeated in the ring, including a knockout win over Luke Rockhold, before transitioning to BKFC this year, where he’s already picked up two wins.
With time running out for this year, though, there aren’t a ton of dates left for a Paul vs. Till fight to happen, but if they can get things over the line, Bidarian thinks Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, is an ideal date for such a fight.
“It’s a moment where everyone is at home, everyone is focused on their family and some food, and they’re usually watching some reruns or some second-tier sports product if it’s on. So it’s a great window,” Bidarian said. “Amazon, for the first time, has a Christmas Eve NFL game this year, because it’s a captive audience with not much else going on.
“The whole game is, can you capture the attention of the consumer to actually watch your content? So the more competition there is for their attention, the worse off you are. Unless you’re a hardcore fan, or unless you have a massive mega-event like the Super Bowl. So yeah, I like those dates. I’ve never thought of those dates as being negative. I see them as big positives. …
“Christmas Day is busy, in the U.S. anyway. It’s the NBA and NFL going back-to-back-to-back. So I think Christmas Eve is better than Christmas Day, at the moment.”
