WWE star Drew McIntyre open to wrestling match with Jake Paul

Paul faces Tommy Fury in an eagerly-anticipated fight on 18 December and has drawn admiration from one of the WWE’s biggest names

WWE star Drew McIntyre has compared YouTube star Jake Paul’s impact on boxing to Muhammad Ali – and says he would be open to facing the 24-year-old in a wrestling match.

Paul is 4-0 as a professional boxer and faces Tommy Fury later this month in Florida, having so far defeated MMA fighters Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren, former NBA star Nate Robinson and Youtuber AnEsonGib.

The 19-stone McIntyre, who has previously called out heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, says he has been impressed by Paul’s ability to create controversy, capture the attention and play the role of a ‘heel’ – a wrestling term used to describe a villain or antagonist.

“Jake Paul is a foe of everybody I guess [laughs],” McIntyre told TalkSPORT. “He gets it. So few people are willing to be true bad guys and make the public pay to see them get beat and he is a true bad guy.

“Whenever I see him show up at these events and the whole crowd starts booing him, I’m like: ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’

“He is basically the number one heel in the world, so if he wants to swing by WWE and get Claymored [McIntyre’s signature move] in the face, that’s just fine with me!

“It’s like Muhammad Ali back in the day. Everyone just remembers the good parts and how great he was, but if you remember in the beginning of Ali’s career, he was playing the heel and taking inspiration from WWE.”

McIntyre added that he has not given up on his attempts to headline a big WWE show in the UK – with WBC heavyweight boxing champion Fury at the top of his list of potential opponents.

He said: “I’m still angling for that significant UK pay-per-view and I won’t shut up until it happens. Tyson Fury and I have gone back and forth for a long time.

“If we needed something just a little outside of the box to get people’s attention, especially in the UK with someone of Fury’s stature fighting Drew McIntyre in the battle of Britain, that would really draw some eyes and that’s where I’d like to see it.”