'Tell me more Dana': Jake Paul mocks White as Deontay Wilder, 41, lands Jai Opetaia fight
In March White said he wanted "the best fighters in the world" facing each other, adding that he would like to see Opetaia fight Usyk.
Jake Paul has turned Dana White's own words on him over Deontay Wilder v Jai Opetaia, posting on X about an hour after White announced the fight for the Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua card in Cardiff.
"Hold up... so a top 10 P4P fighter in Jai, who is 31-0 is fighting a 41 year old Deontay Wilder who has been knocked out in 4 of his last 7 fights?" Paul wrote, quoting White's announcement. "Tell me more Dana about how you always have the best fighting the best and 'that's not what we do.'"
White has used those words himself. Speaking in London after a UFC Fight Night in March, and asked about fighters crossing over to boxing, he said: "That's not what we do." He continued: "I want to see the best fighters in the world fight the best fighters in the world. I mean, I'd like to see Jai Opetaia fight Usyk..."
He gave a similar answer when Brianna LaPaglia asked whether he would ever have Paul under the Zuffa Boxing banner. "No, that's not what I do," White said. "There's obviously a market for that, but that's not what I do. I put the best fighters in the world against each other from the minute that they get into the sport, all the way up to world champion. The best fight the best."
White, whose Zuffa Boxing promotes Opetaia, sold the fight on Wednesday with the line: "Wilder has a 95% knockout rate and Opetaia is undefeated 31-0." It takes place at the Principality Stadium on 11 December, live on Netflix.
Wilder, 41, is 45-4-1, and all four defeats have come in his last seven fights. Three were stoppages rather than the four knockouts Paul counted, twice against Fury and once against Zhilei Zhang, and the other was a decision against Joseph Parker. He has won his last two, beating Tyrrell Herndon and then Derek Chisora by split decision in April.
Paul has his own fight to come, against Cedric Doumbe at the Coca-Cola Arena on 24 December. It will be his first since Joshua knocked him out in December 2025.
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Reported by the Combat Sports UK desk. Times are UK and Irish time, and we update the report when the facts change. How we work.