The social media influencer's team has held talks with representatives of the Ukrainian heavyweight world champion about a fight that is sure to appeal to fans from around the globe.

Nakisa Bidarian, who co-founded the MVP promotional company with Paul, told Sky Sports: "We've had a couple of conversations, all very positive, and it just depends on how the timing lines up. I think the opportunity is there.

"Jake is crazy enough to do it for sure, Usyk's side seem very interested in it. So it's just about lining up the timing and I think eventually it's something that will happen."

Bidarian revealed that the unlikely connection between the pair was formed when the social media star and his team supported Usyk in his heavyweight world title fight against Daniel Dubois in 2023.

He said: "Daniel Dubois got his US debut on Jake's first pay-per-view event in 2021 and then we went to support Usyk vs Dubois in Poland when they fought, and so we started to build a relationship with them. I think it was three or four months ago when Usyk came out and said: I'd like to do one more fight and I'd like to fight Jake Paul in MMA.

"Jake is crazy enough to do it. It's funny, he told me the other night: 'Oh, that's an easy fight.' I said he's got a wrestling background. He's like: 'Oh [no], I didn't know that!'"

Bidarian believes that an MMA bout against Usyk can help Paul in his bid to be acknowledged as a force to be reckoned with in the world of combat sports following the YouTuber's controversial bout with heavyweight legend Mike Tyson.

He said: "I think so, absolutely. Jake has two priorities, as do I for his career and MVP as a whole: we want to put on great boxing events and he wants to become world champion, but we also want to do mainstream cross-cultural moments in combat sports. Paul vs Tyson did that in many ways.

"The same thing for Paul vs Usyk in MMA. That's going to be a cross-cultural moment that the world will pay attention to. So we're always interested in those opportunities."