Jake Paul's team in talks with Darren Till for boxing return, Christmas Eve floated

Jake Paul's team is in talks with former UFC welterweight title challenger Darren Till about a boxing match. Paul's business partner Nakisa Bidarian said so in an interview with The Sun Sport reported on Tuesday. Bidarian, who co-founded MVP with Paul, spoke to Jack Figg, according to SB Nation on Yahoo Sports and Sherdog. No deal has been signed, and there is no date, venue or broadcaster yet.

"He's definitely one of the names that we've been speaking to," Bidarian said of Till.

Bidarian said he likes holiday dates because people are at home with family and not much else to watch. Christmas Day is crowded with NBA and NFL games in the U.S., he said. "I think Christmas Eve is better than Christmas Day, at the moment," he added, according to SB Nation.

Sherdog's write-up of the same interview doesn't mention Christmas Eve, and The Sun's original wasn't available for us to check. December 24 is also Till's birthday, according to Wikipedia.

A tight window

Bidarian said the timing depends on how fast they can close a deal with an opponent and sort out distribution around them. "If we figure it out in the next 24 hours, we'll hopefully get a fight in this year," he told The Sun, via Sherdog. If it takes three to five more weeks, he said, the fight is probably early next year.

Till isn't the only option. Bidarian wrote on X last week that MVP was "actively negotiating with 4 potential opponents", per MMA Sucka. The window he gave was late 2026 or early 2027. He didn't name the four. British Boxing News lists Edgar Berlanga and Tommy Fury among the candidates, which MVP hasn't confirmed.

Both men reacted on X on October 22. Till told Paul's side to "send the contract", and Paul wrote, "Let's see who actually signs the contract." Till hasn't publicly responded to Tuesday's comments.

Where both men stand

Paul is 12-2 as a pro boxer, according to Wikipedia. He hasn't fought since December 19, 2025, when Anthony Joshua knocked him out in Miami, the AP reported. Joshua dropped him four times, and the referee counted him out at 1:31 of the sixth. Paul broke his jaw in that fight and had a second procedure in February, per Sherdog.

Bidarian announced on October 8 that Paul had been medically cleared, according to Field Level Media.

Till, 33, asked for his UFC release in February 2023 after three straight losses. His CageOracle page has closing odds for those three losses. He closed at +230 (29%) against Robert Whittaker in 2020 and was favoured at -172 (59%) against Derek Brunson in 2021. He closed at +164 (36%) against Dricus Du Plessis in 2022.

Till is 3-0 in pro boxing under Misfits, including a third-round knockout of Luke Rockhold in August 2025. He signed with BKFC in April and is 2-0 there, most recently beating Yoel Romero on points at BKFC 94 in Manchester on September 26, per Wikipedia.

There's history here. Till was booked to box Julio César Chávez Jr. on the 2024 Paul vs. Mike Tyson card, but that bout was scrapped when the event was postponed. Paul has already beaten five former UFC fighters: Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley (twice), Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz and Mike Perry. Woodley is the champion who submitted Till in their 2018 title fight.

We think Till would be a tougher assignment than Woodley, Silva or Perry were. He has won five straight in boxing and bare-knuckle since January 2025, and he'd arrive off a September win. Paul, meanwhile, would be returning from a knockout loss, a broken jaw and almost a year out.

Two things could still get in the way. Till is under a multi-fight BKFC contract, and in September he said he wanted to fight Carl Froch first, floating March 2027, per MMA Sucka. Nobody involved has said how either would fit around a December date.