The boxing community is still waiting for Jake Paul’s influence to trickle down to the rest of the sport.
The boxing community is still waiting for Jake Paul’s influence to trickle down to the rest of the sport.
The 27-year-old Paul (10-1, 7 KOs), a YouTuber and social media star, took on boxing in recent years and has since created some of the biggest fights in the sport.
The majority of those fights have come against fellow influencers, MMA fighters or athletes from other sports, specifically designed for absurdity in order to draw big audiences.
Paul’s massive following has catapulted his box office success much quicker than most professional boxers.
He earned the lucrative bout he’s long called for, against 58-year-old Mike Tyson Friday night at AT&T Stadium. Given Tyson’s age and stature in the sport, it’s similarly designed to shock people into watching.
Paul is expected to receive a massive $40 million payday, with Tyson expected to bring in $20 million. More than 60,000 fans are expected to be in attendance at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and Paul has predicted the fight will have the largest-ever gate for any boxing fight outside Las Vegas.
But is this a one-off and a gimmick or can this actually be good for boxing?
“I’m still waiting for boxing to take advantage of what Jake Paul has been able to do,” Shawn Porter, a former two-time welterweight champion and current boxing analyst, told The Post. “With Jake Paul, there became this resurgence of people being interested in boxing that had never been interested in boxing or hadn’t been interested in a very long time. With Jake Paul, you have a younger audience.
