Jake Paul might be spending Christmas Eve getting punched by a Scouser. His business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, told Jack Figg of The Sun Sport that former UFC welterweight title challenger Darren Till is in the mix for Paul’s return, and that Dec. 24 is the date he has his eye on if the deal closes fast enough. GiveMeSport ran it as the leaked plan for Paul’s next fight, and the plan has a target date attached.
“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.”
Nothing is signed. Bidarian said the date, time and location all hinge on locking in the opponent and figuring out distribution around whoever that ends up being. If it drags on for another few weeks, he said, there’s no fight this year and they’re probably looking at early 2027. If it gets done quickly, December is still alive.
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His pitch for Christmas Eve is pure attention economics, and honestly it’s pretty sharp.
“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. He pointed to Amazon running its first Christmas Eve NFL game this year as proof that people will watch, then explained why the next day is off the table: “Christmas Day is busy, in the U.S. anyway.” That means NBA and NFL stacked on top of each other. “So I think Christmas Eve is better than Christmas Day, at the moment.”
Where Paul Is Coming From
Paul hasn’t boxed since last December, when Anthony Joshua stopped him in Round 6 with a right hand that broke his jaw in multiple places. That was the second loss of his pro boxing career, and he’s been out healing ever since. A Tommy Fury rematch looked like the obvious comeback, but Paul turned it down and said that ship has sailed. He followed up by posting a 15-man hit list of guys he wants before he retires, with Francis Ngannou, Tom Aspinall, Sean Strickland and Till all on it.
Till has been calling for this fight for years, basically from the moment he walked away from the UFC to go box. Since then he’s put together a five-fight win streak across different promotions and rulesets. That includes an unbeaten run in boxing with a knockout of Luke Rockhold and two wins in BKFC this year. Earlier this month, Till said he was just waiting on Paul to send the contract. Bloody Elbow reported that he still owes BKFC one fight on his deal, though the promotion would likely let him fight elsewhere without a breach.
MVP’s calendar is filling up either way. Amanda Serrano’s farewell fight, billed as The Last Walk, goes Jan. 9 at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan on DAZN.
My Take
I’ll give Paul this much: coming off a shattered jaw, the easy move was a hand-picked retired guy or a nostalgia rematch with Fury. Till is a big, mean, left-handed former title challenger who has spent years trash-talking him for free. That’s a real fight. Bidarian basically put a 24-hour clock on it, so if this is still “one of the names” by Thanksgiving, we’ll know who blinked. My money says it’s not the guy who’s already asking for the contract.
