Social media star Jake Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) likes the idea of a showdown with former WBC world middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Paul was in action last month, when he brutally knocked out former UFC champion Tyron Woodley in the sixth round.

He was initially scheduled to face the first boxer of his career, unbeaten light heavyweight prospect Tommy Fury (7-0, 4 KOs).

With around two weeks to go before the fight, Fury withdrew with a broken rub and chest infection. He was quickly replaced by Woodley.

While Fury wants the fight to get rescheduled to a date in March, a recent challenge from Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 34 KOs) has caught Paul's attention.

“It’s interesting. I like that fight a lot, because it silences the critics,” Paul said to Chris Mannix. “He was a former world champion, and I know I could beat him. And you look at his record, it’s like 50 wins or something, and I don’t even know the losses, but it’s a good record. So that challenge excites me and I’m down. And this is what people don’t understand is that, even after I knocked out Woodley, they were all like, ‘Fight a real boxer.’

“I’m like, ‘You guys, I tried, and he dropped out of the fight two weeks before.’ So I want to fight a real boxer, newsflash, and I’m going to. Just have some f------ patience.”

Chavez Jr. - 35-years-old - is looking to restore some luster to his career after suffering an embarrassing decision loss in 2021 to 46-year-old UFC icon Anderson Silva, who was boxing for the first time in 16 years. Chavez Jr. picked up a stay-busy win last month in Mexico, but he's now pursuing the opportunity to face Paul in a pay-per-view showdown.