“Will it pay enough?”: Conor Daly issues hilarious response to Jake Paul challenging Connor McGregor to an MMA fight

Former NASCAR driver, Conor Daly, has weighed in on a fight Jake Paul proposed on X (formerly Twitter). While the challenge was directed at Conor McGregor, Daly poked fun at the tweet and asked whether the payout would fund his racing career.

Daly is a 32-year-old professional racing driver who previously competed in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 78 Chevrolet for Juncos Hillinger Racing. The Indiana native is the son of former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Derek Daly. He was teammates with former F1 driver Romain Grosjean.

Conor Daly took to X to post a hilarious response to Jake Paul’s challenge proposal, saying:

“Will it pay enough to fund my @IndyCar season, Jake? Because if so…”

The tweet was a response to Jake Paul’s challenging Connor McGregor to an MMA fight without a weight class restriction.

“Dear Conor, I know you told my team you would fight me at 170lbs. That’s never happening. But let’s run it in MMA. No weight class. Just like how it used to be done. But you won’t.”

Conor Daly's banter seemed to take a jab at the lucrative payday for fighting Jake Paul in a boxing ring. Paul's previous match against Hall of Famer Mike Tyson reportedly netted him around $40 million, while "Iron Mike" earned approximately $20 million for eight rounds of boxing.

Daly is currently out of contract in Indy, though he is expected to sign with Juncos Hillinger Racing for 2025.

While Daly won’t likely get in the ring with Paul anytime soon, the IndyCar driver is enjoying the off-season following the 2024 season where he secured one top-5 and three top-10 finishes. Like Paul, Daly also has a YouTube channel, on which he posts podcast episodes which mainly talk about the ins and outs of IndyCar.

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“I give her credit for taking the risk”: When Conor Daly applauded Hailie Deegan for Indy move

In one of his podcast episodes on Speed Street, Conor Daly shared his thoughts on Hailie Deegan’s move from stock car racing to open-wheel racing. Daly gave credit to the former Xfinity Series driver for taking the risk, considering the difference in driving styles.

The 32-year-old driver said (via Dirty Mo Media on X):

"I give her credit for taking the risk […] This is a difficult jump, this is really hard to make a switch of an entirely different lifestyle, essentially an entirely different driving style, an entirely different style of vehicle. But I respect the effort." [0:18]

He added:

"And again, she's got one of the biggest followings on the internet and always the people with the massive followings have more people that decide to slander her than anyone else and that's kind of shame. But I respect what she's doing."

While Daly searches for a seat for next year, Deegan is set to compete in Indy NXT in the No. 38 car for HMD Motorsports. She will run a full season along with teammates Caio Collet, Josh Pierson, Tommy Smith, and Bryce Aron.