Darren Till has accused Jake Paul of wasting his time after claiming negotiations for a boxing fight between the pair had progressed to the point where he began his fight camp.

The former UFC welterweight title challenger emerged as a potential opponent of ‘The Problem Child’ a few weeks ago when Paul released a 15-man hitlist of opponents he wants to fight before his boxing career is over.

That led to talks between Paul and Till for a boxing clash on Christmas Eve, and despite those negotiations trending in the right direction, their potential fight was scrapped this Monday morning when Cedric Doumbe was announced as Paul’s next opponent.

Darren Till claims he already started training camp for Jake Paul clash on Christmas Eve

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show this Monday, ‘The Gorilla’ revealed that negotiations were trending in the right direction with Paul and his team after Nakisa Bidarian reached out to him, and he even agreed to a price for their anticipated clash.

“From what I’m gathering, negotiations were going well, I think we agreed on a price,” Till said. “They reached out to me, I didn’t reach out to them, for me I thought we were all good to go,” he continued.

According to the 33-year-old, from what he heard, negotiations were going that well, that he even paid for his coach to fly to Dubai to begin his training camp, with December 24 the date he was working towards. “I’ve been in camp for the past two weeks, I flew my coach out to get ready, seven weeks away right around the corner… Then out of nowhere this daft fight gets announced with Cedric Doumbe, I don’t think anyone outside of his own household know who he is,” the former UFC star explained.

Why is Jake Paul fighting Cedric Doumbe instead of Darren Till?

Typically, Paul picks opponents that are smaller in stature than the former UFC welterweight title challenger, and the Frenchman usually competes at 170lbs, which is a weight Till hasn’t hit since 2019. Not only that, but Doumbe is a physically less imposing figure than ‘The Gorilla’, standing at just 5’8″, compared to Till’s 6’0″.

Not only that, but in 2024, Doumbe signed an exclusive multi-year deal with the PFL, which has now been taken over by Paul and Bidarian’s promotion, MVP. With Doumbe likely already having a working business relationship with MVP, he stood out as a more convenient opponent.

“Jake probably just wants to see how his jaw holds up against someone who weighs about 150lbs on a good day. It’s just a fraudulent show isn’t it? Jake’s a fraud, Nakisa’s (Bidarian) a little fraud, wasting my time, couldn’t give a f—, not arsed. I’ve just wasted about £5000 getting my coach out here for camp and that, but it doesn’t matter, all good,” he continued.