Jake Paul’s next sideshow fight is booked and it might be the start of the decline of his time as a draw in boxing.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Jake Paul isn’t a legitimate boxer and truth be told, he has no reason to want to be. Similar to many others from the “famous for being famous” category on social media, Paul has found a way to parlay social media success into other avenues. He took a page from the professional wrestling playbook and cast himself as a villain, as people will pay to see him lose. It’s been used in sports entertainment for decades, and is nothing new to boxing either. Floyd Mayweather used the same “bad guy” marketing tactic during the second half of his very lucrative career, albeit with often hand-picked opponents that he knew weren’t a true threat to his undefeated record.
Besides the obvious difference that Floyd was a legitimate boxer, the problem of the Jake Paul selling point is that since he relies on gimmicks for his fights, the longevity of how long the general public will pay to watch it is much shorter. Paul knows that, which is why he has taken incrementally more serious opponents to try to stretch how long he can generate big payoffs from the sport. That’s why he doesn’t want to be a legitimate boxer, because it will expose, and it already has, the fact that he’s a novice fighter that used his fame from outside of the ring to cash in on the sport.
A look at his laundry lists of legal issues and accusations prove that he’s a sleazy guy, but from purely a capitalism perspective, Jake Paul has found a way to get paid millions of dollars for circus fights. As a purest, I shake my head, especially because the Canelo/Crawford bout in September was a showcase of what top-notch boxing brings to the table, but there’s no doubt that Jake Paul, at least for right now, can draw money.
His next fight was originally scheduled for this month against WBA lightweight champion, Gervonta Davis, who has an undefeated record of 30-0 with wins against credible opponents. As with every Jake Paul production, there was a gimmick. Davis is a lightweight, and Jake Paul has fought between crusierweight or heavyweight. The fight was initially supposed to be held in Georgia, but was moved to Florida because there were issues getting a fight sanctioned when there was such a size difference, but gimmicks aren’t anything new for a Jake Paul contest. He fought a social media influencer, a basketball player, an out of shape Ben Askren, who was just there for the payday, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva after they were both clearly passed their respective primes, and then finally an actual boxer when he squared off with Tommy Fury. Sure, Tommy Fury is a completely mediocre boxer and his only claim to fame is that he’s the brother of a former heavyweight champion, but he beat Jake Paul in 2023. So, when Jake Paul finally fought an actual, albeit mediocre boxer, he lost. Paul beat Nate Diaz, who was more or less just there for the check since he’s basically done fighting in MMA before fought a pair of tomato cans that nobody has heard of after that. His contest against Mike Perry was laughable, as Perry was a former UFC competitor that was primarily known for wrestling so the victory was against another guy that wasn’t a threat, but was willing to take the fight for the payday.
Jake Paul moved the needle when he fought a 58-year-old Mike Tyson last November, selling almost 60,000 tickets and generating a live gate of over $18 million. Granted, the biggest selling point was Tyson back in the ring, and the fact that the spectacle was woefully underwhelming, especially compared to what the general public expected with Mike Tyson on the marquee, was almost irrelevant when it was able to draw that much money. Paul’s fight earlier this year against the infamously lazy Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was also completely underwhelming when Paul secured a lackluster decision win. Chavez Jr. had proven previously in his career that he’s not a dangerous opponent, and similar to the rest of his career, he only brought his last name to the table for the fight against Paul. Post-fight, Chavez Jr. was arrested and deported back to Mexico for alleged connections to the drug cartels.
The same way that he brought Tyson into the fold when he needed to try to reignite interest in his boxing exploits, Jake Paul got Gervonta Davis as a legitimate opponent, but of course the catch was that Davis is a significantly smaller fighter. Why does Jake Paul fight without a gimmick stipulation with every card? The answer to that is simple because when he fought an actual boxer within a reasonable weight class, a fighter that was mediocre at best, he lost. Paul knows that if he loses, the audience will get what they paid to see, and given that watching him lose is the novelty, there’s not a reason for them to have to pay to see it again.
The decision loss to Tommy Fury is one thing, but a brutal knockout or stoppage is the ultimate payoff to the entire Jake Paul “angle” as a boxer. The chances that Davis was going to be able to do that weren’t zero, but it was a minimal risk. Given the size difference, the bout was scheduled to be an exhibition since the athletic commission wouldn’t sanction it as a pro fight, highlighting just how silly the entire presentation is, until a lawsuit was filed against Davis earlier this month. The legal action accused him of domestic violence and kidnapping. The serious nature of the accusations prompted the bout to be cancelled, with other opponents considered for the fight that will air on Netflix.
After shuffling through potential opponents, former two-time heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua was selected for the bout scheduled for December 19th in Miami, Florida on Netflix. Taking into account the platform, it will be interesting to see if there are any Paul/Joshua commercials during WWE programming. The British heavyweight is a serious, albeit under achieving contender, with key loses that kept him at the second tier of heavyweights over the past several years. In mid-2019, he suffered a shocking knockout loss in the seventh round to relatively unknown Andy Ruiz. It’s the heavyweight division and it only takes one punch for someone to get a fluke win so there wasn’t much damage done to his status in the division, especially when he avenged the loss via unanimous decision in December of the year. At the time, many boxing pundits looked toward an eventual Deontay Wilder/Anthony Joshua showcase, but in the five years since that time, Wilder garnered a record of just 2-4, prompting some to call for his potential retirement from the sport. Wilder’s return to the ring, a TKO victory over the undistinguished Tyrrell Herndon, this past June received very little buzz within the sport. When Jousha beat Kubrat Pulev at the end of 2020, many assumed that the flash KO loss to Ruiz the prior year was, in fact, a fluke. However, a pair of losses again current undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk that unfolded over the following two years, not only fizzled talks of the Wilder confrontation at the time, but were also key loses that proved that he was a solid contender, but wasn’t able to get victories against the top of the division. The Ukrianian champion went on to defeat Daniel Dubois, Tyson Fury twice, and then Dubois again in a rematch. Joshua picked up three wins in a row, again suggesting that he was on his way back up the ranks in the division before he was knocked out in the fifth round by the previously mentioned Dubois last year.
So, the narrative of Anthony Joshua’s career is that he’s a competitive heavyweight, not a top-tier fighter. That makes him legitimately dangerous for a Jake Paul fight, but maybe not too dangerous. That said, he’s the most dangerous fighter that Paul has fought by a considerable margin. The story of the fight is simple, if the British fighter is there to get a highlight reel win to use the publicity to rejuvenate his career for another run in the division then Paul could get knocked out, but if Joshua is just in the ring for the major payday, Paul will get an underwhelming decision on the score cards.
If Jake Paul gets knocked out then the audience gets what they paid to see, and as mentioned, there’s not really a reason for them to have to pay to watch him fight again so interest in his fights would probably wain significantly going forward. Some might scoff at that considering the numbers that Paul fights have done prior to his, but it’s important to keep in mind that it’s the nature of sideshow fights. Given that the entire world, including sports with the recent betting accusations in different leagues, who knows what’s actually going to happen during the Paul/Joshua contest, but given that the only bout that Jake Paul lost was against an actual boxer that’s a rather mediocre fighter, the odds shouldn’t be in his favor when he competes against a legitimate former heavyweight champion.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
