If you’re eagerly awaiting Jake Paul’s first MMA bout, you might not want to hold your breath. According to Donn Davis, the owner of the Professional Fighters League, who signed the YouTuber-turned-boxer to an MMA contract, Paul’s MMA debut won’t come before the fall of 2025.

Davis was interviewed by MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and covered a variety of topics. Particularly important, Davis said this about Paul’s debut with the promotion:

“I just talked to Nakisa [Bidarian] (Paul’s partner with MVP Promotions) an hour ago,” PFL founder Donn Davis said. “Two things are happening: Jake is super successful in boxing. Whether you love Jake or hate Jake, we can all agree that guy’s the man when it comes to generating attention, revenue, and viewership with his boxing career. It’s more successful than it was when we signed him. On the boxing side, that has delayed MMA because he’s killing it in boxing. So will MMA happen with the PFL? Yes, it will. Has it been delayed? Yes, it has. My guess is the fall of this year, but I don’t think it’s going to be before that. He’s got so many things going on in boxing.”

Here is a look at the entire interview.

Credit to Davis for being transparent and not making promises that might not be kept. Paul is in a great position.

He can do whatever he wants and take any fight that he believes is in his best interest. As Davis said, at this point, Paul is having so much success in boxing, unless the perfect opportunity in MMA comes along, it could be very difficult to pull him into the PFL Smartcage.

Truthfully, because Paul has had almost no mixed martial arts training, the matchmaking for his first MMA fight will have to be carefully crafted.

Paul did call out Nate Diaz, and there was reportedly a $10 million offer made to the UFC legend. However, it is unlikely Paul climbs into the cage with a seasoned mixed martial artist. If he does, he’s probably fighting someone who isn’t going to take him down.

“I don’t think it’s Nate Diaz or bust,” Davis added. “I think there are other opportunities. It matters. The opponent matters. The opponent always matters. Jake is brilliant at picking opponents. Of course, it matters who the name and the opponent are, but I think there’s a broader set than Nate Diaz. How big is that set? Maybe four or three; it’s not a lot, but I think it’s bigger than Nate.”

Perhaps the best thing the PFL can do is to sign someone they can build to become Paul’s MMA opponent. The ideal path is to have that fighter grow his social media presence while consistently calling Paul out.

Here comes the hard part: he needs to keep winning and doing it impressively. He needs to go viral in ways that the casual fan can understand.

That’s not likely to come to fruition in 2025. Without that scenario or the emergence of an ideal big name, it might be tough to lure the Problem Child away from the boxing ring.