‘Content Is King,' and Paul Is a Divisive Fight Promoter

Time of India

2 days ago

Love him or loathe him,
Jake Paul
, who first entered the public eye by posting videos of pranks on
social media
, has become the biggest draw in American boxing.
Saturday night's pay-per-view bout on DAZN, in which Paul beat another long-past-his-prime world champion, Julio César Chávez Jr., in Anaheim, California, via unanimous decision, was his eighth headline fight since 2021. Paul has reportedly earned more than $60 million from the ring in his career.
What it says about the state of the sport is not so clear.
'I think Jake Paul is brilliant as a marketer and an influencer,' said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank Boxing. 'And I think he's done an incredible job. But I don't really believe it has anything to do with boxing.'
The numbers don't lie, though. An estimated 108 million viewers caught at least a glimpse of Paul dancing around 58-year-old
Mike Tyson
live on
Netflix
last year in a bout that arrived with maximum hype but quickly devolved into an unsatisfying spectacle.
Many observers decried the event's very existence. But it did little to dim Paul's drawing power.
'I've embraced the hate and done things consistently to push people's buttons, to build that hate even more,' Paul said in a recent interview.
It's an old-school formula he has leaned into with new-school annoyance, and he is well aware that people will tune in hoping to see him be knocked out.
'In this sport, monetizing that hate can be very lucrative,' he said. 'You look at all the big people — they were all villains, from Floyd to Mike Tyson to
Muhammad Ali
. People forget Muhammad Ali was one of the most hated figures in the world. I see myself as a similar story.'
That Paul would be brazen enough to mention himself in the same breath as Ali, Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr., three of the best fighters in boxing history, is the type of antic that drives many people to root against him.
Ali, after all, came to prominence during the civil rights era, when his unapologetic confidence upended the expectation that Black athletes would be quiet and humble. He unleashed some of the most poetic trash talk the sports world has heard, but his anti-war stance cost him championship belts and years of his prime.
Paul faces nothing like that kind of pressure. His public career began with prank skits on Vine. He later skirted COVID-19 restrictions in California by throwing large parties and was sued by his neighbors for being a public nuisance. His resume includes beating a retired NBA player and former mixed martial arts fighters years past their prime.
It does not take a trained eye to know that Paul's talk of eventual world titles is all talk; the imperfection in his 12-1 professional record was a loss to Tommy Fury, a journeyman who became a reality dating show contestant.
And yet Paul, 28, believes he would be heralded as the next great American prospect if he weren't a YouTuber with Disney Channel roots. The sport's purists would scoff at that. Boxing's 'Check engine' light may glow brighter with each of his ring walks, but he is undeniably a magnet for attention.
'I don't know why he set his sights on boxing,' said Mark Kriegel, who wrote Tyson's biography. 'But it was a pretty smart calculation.'
Paul has become the rare promoter who straps on gloves and turns himself into the product.
'I think he might be one of three people in my lifetime who understand the media better than the media understands itself,' Kriegel said. 'The other two being Al Sharpton and
Donald Trump
. He just has an intuitive sense of what people want.'
The greatest promoters have always built hype, provoked engagement and told stories. But in a crowded media space in which sports are competing with TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, HBO and Hulu for attention, the modern-day promoter needs a breakthrough.
Enter boxing, a sport in desperate need of an American disrupter.
'Content is king,' Paul said. 'And I think that's where I come into the picture — telling the stories, using my platform, promoting these events and promoting other fighters.'
Top Rank's duBoef sees it. He calls Paul wonderful for the industry, but he draws a hard line between Paul's spectacle and the sport itself.
When duBoef considers the health of boxing, he views it through a global prism. He starts in Japan, where there is a renaissance behind the pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue. In England, he points to Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on July 19. In North America, he cites Canelo Álvarez and David Benavidez, who draw massive crowds. The biggest fight in the sport in 2025 is likely to be Álvarez facing Terence Crawford on Sept. 13 in Las Vegas.
For duBoef, Paul's fights live in a different bucket: an entertainment adjacent to boxing, in the same way that the PGA Tour should not be concerned about Aaron Rodgers battling Tom Brady in the match.
Paul would have been just as successful playing 3-on-3 basketball, chess, tennis or pickleball, duBoef believes.
In a moment of humble levity, Paul echoed duBoef, to a point.
'I think there are better boxers,' Paul said, acknowledging the Benavidezes and Inoues of the world. 'But outside the ring, I'm one of the most important in boxing. Just because of the new eyeballs running to the sport.'
The eyeballs Paul is drawing into boxing are not just for him. He is helping others make names, too, cultivating an ecosystem of potential future stars within his Most Valuable Promotions brand, in the same vein as Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions.
The rematch between Amanda Serrano of MVP and Katie Taylor thrived so mightily on the Paul-Tyson undercard in November that the women will complete their trilogy at Madison Square Garden in New York on July 11 on their own Netflix card.
'It's too easy to dismiss him as just a provocateur,' Kriegel said. 'Promoters promote. There are too many promoters in this sport who just hang out a shingle and let someone with money pay for their promotion. You wouldn't have seen Serrano-Taylor 2 reach that audience if it weren't for that card.'
Whether that is inspiring, infuriating, repulsive or innovative, Paul's persisting existence in boxing is certainly not neutral.
For those who believe boxing should be about skill, belts, rankings and legacies, Paul is a warning sign. For those who prize entertainment, reach and pop-culture relevance, Paul is the adrenaline shot that the sport needs.
Either way, feeling anything is infinitely more valuable than apathy.
'That Gen Z category all got aware of the sport,' duBoef said.
Yes, Paul had another boxing match Saturday night. People didn't tune in for world-class footwork or heady feints. But don't think ignoring it would have made it go away.
A man many boxing purists despise just might be essential to the sport's health.
'It seems to me like there's this elaborate dance,' Kriegel said. 'And most of the time, he gets what he wants.'