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One of the big questions we had once Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren was announced — properly announced, not ginned up by Chael Sonnen in Dec. 2020 — was how Paul managed to get UFC’s permission to fight the YouTube personality. Despite being retired, “Funky” is still under UFC contract, and any sporting endeavor like this requires the promotion signing off on it.
That could have potentially stopped things dead in their tracks. UFC is known for being pretty picky when it comes to giving this kind of permission, and company president, Dana White, and Askren have some history of butting heads and not getting along.