Jake Paul’s team is negotiating with four possible opponents for his return to boxing, according to Nakisa Bidarian, the CEO of Most Valuable Promotions and Paul’s manager. Bidarian posted the update on X on Thursday, Oct. 22, and said the target window is late 2026 or early 2027. He added that the choice of opponent will determine where the fight happens and how it gets distributed.
Nobody on Paul’s side named the four. That didn’t stop the replies from filling up fast.
The loudest belonged to Darren Till, the former UFC welterweight title challenger, who quoted Bidarian’s post within minutes. Till told Bidarian to quit stalling, find some nerve and send over the contract, and promised he’d smash Paul’s head in. To be clear, nothing in Bidarian’s update says Till is one of the four names on the list. Till is simply campaigning, and he’s doing it the way he does everything.
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Paul responded about 40 minutes later, quoting the same post from his manager. “So much yipping and yapping and lots of capping. Let’s see who actually signs the contract,” he wrote, then followed with: “Fighters talk talk talk, but don’t actually have the jaw to do it.” He didn’t tag anyone, but the timing invites a guess about who he meant.
MVP’s official account also pushed Bidarian’s statement out Thursday morning, framing it as an update on Paul’s return to the ring. talkSPORT and Geo Super both picked up the negotiations story later in the day.
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This lands two days after a separate bit of Paul business that has nothing to do with his own gloves. On Oct. 20, Championship Rounds flagged that Jon Jones reposted a post from Paul calling on the UFC to release Jones so he could fight Francis Ngannou. “They already said they are never working with Francis. So let Jon fly and we can give the fans what they want,” Paul wrote. So Paul is playing promoter for one heavyweight fight he can’t control while shopping four names for a fight he can. Busy week.
The detail that matters to me is Bidarian’s line about location and distribution depending on the opponent. That’s a manager telling you the four names aren’t interchangeable. Some of them presumably sell in one market, some on one platform, and the money looks different for each. When a camp says the venue hinges on the dance partner, they’re usually still deciding how much risk the business side is willing to stomach.
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My take: four opponents in active negotiations is a sentence designed to make four guys feel urgent and zero guys feel signed. I’ve lost money on less obvious leverage plays than this one. There’s no line to bet, no name to handicap, and Paul himself just told the internet that most of these people won’t sign. I believe him on that part. If Till actually gets a contract in front of him, I’ll be the first one checking the opening number, because a former 170-pound title challenger who welcomes a brawl is a far more interesting price than whatever safe name usually ends up on the poster. Until then, the window Bidarian gave is late 2026 at the earliest, and October is already more than half gone.
