The vaunted jump from MMA to boxing is a move filled with the aroma of cash. Remember May-Mac? The extravaganza that made Conor McGregor a multimillionaire. The stakes are high and understandably so. But the reverse of it is a lesser-known phenomenon. We had James Toney fighting Randy Couture way back in 2010 inside the Octagon but that was a legend way past his prime. Moreover, recent memory doesn’t have an incident that makes the cut. But it seems that the nigh impossible is actually about to happen. We are of course talking about Oleksandr Usyk and his arrival into MMA!

“Daniel Dubois is our priority… We’ll see what other opportunities open up. It might be great to step into the cage with Jake Paul under MMA rules, it would be interesting,” the unified boxing heavyweight champ’s coach, Sergey Lapin, told ‘OLBG’ recently. Usyk has said that he will retire after two more fights. One of them, as the coach said, would be against IBF heavyweight champ Daniel Dubois, who holds the only major belt Usyk doesn’t have. But after Dubois, Usyk was targeting a boxing match with UFC’s Alex Pereira. But, it seems the boxing champ now wants to go one step further and fight Jake Paul under MMA rules.

This raises the question! Is the Ukrainian boxer serious? Well, PFL commentator and former UFC star Dan Hardy had an interesting take. “One thing I can say is, I do know that Usyk is absolutely dead serious about fighting in MMA, I can tell you that for sure. Which would be incredibly exciting because I think he would be lethal,” Hardy told ‘talkSPORT MMA’ in a recent interview

While Hardy didn’t say exactly why he is sure Usyk is ‘dead serious’ about crossing over to MMA, his certainty makes it seem like he knows something we don’t. Or maybe he’s just making an educated guess. But what about the other piece of the puzzle, will Jake Paul finally make his long-promised MMA debut, and that too against Usyk?

“As far as Jake Paul goes, I don’t know. [PFL Chairman] Donn Davis is the best person to ask with that regard. You know, he’s the ringmaster. He’s the person that deals with Jake Paul and the whole chaotic side of combat sports. I just kind of sit back and watch and do what I’m needed to,” he added.

Paul, of course, signed with the PFL back in 2023 and has been promising his MMA debut in the promotion for a couple of years. Initially, ‘The Problem Child’ tried to rope in former UFC superstar Nate Diaz for his cage debut, but the Stockton native refused pushing back Paul’s MMA debut even further.

But now that the celebrity boxer has an even bigger potential opponent, surely he would agree to face Usyk under the Unified Rules of MMA, right? Well, Dan Hardy doesn’t think so.

Dan Hardy explains why Jake Paul won’t fight Oleksandr Usyk

Dan Hardy feels that Paul won’t agree to fight Usyk for the exact reasons you would think. The heavyweight boxer is too big, ‘too young’, and still too dangerous for the former Disney star. ‘The Problem Child’s opponent profile is someone older, over the hill, preferably retired, and smaller than him. Mixed martial artists Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, Anderson Silva; and a 58-year-old, sometimes-needs-to-use-the-wheelchair Mike Tyson are the types of opponents Paul goes for.

Oh, and Paul’s opponents are usually from a different sport, and Usyk at least fulfills that criteria. But Hardy feels that Paul still won’t fight Usyk. In fact, the former UFC star thinks that he has a better chance of fighting Paul in an MMA match than the Ukrainian heavyweight champion.

“He’s got the ingredients all the things that he needs to be successful. And then, you know, he’s not going to fight Leon Edwards, is he? He’s not going to fight someone that’s at the top of their game. He’s going to want to fight Ben Askren, or you know, Tyron Woodley, or you know probably call me out,” Hardy declared.

But isn’t Hardy exaggerating a bit? After all, Paul was willing to fight Nate Diaz, a bona fide MMA fighter who has held his own against the very best in the world. So why would Paul even want to fight Diaz in his own sport if he wanted an easy fight? Well, Hardy feels that is because the 39-year-old Diaz is too old and beat up to give ‘The Problem Child’ any problems.

“I mean you’re going to want to fight someone even Nate Diaz, like, you know we all hold Nate in high regard. But he’s, you know, he’s 40% scar tissue now and he’s an old guy when it comes to fighting. I even don’t think that would be a good matchup for Nate Diaz because Jake Paul could certainly crack him and hurt him with small gloves,” he opined. What do you think about Dan Hardy’s take on Jake Paul and Oleksandr Usyk’s possible future MMA plans?