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ARLINGTON, Texas — 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.
“I remember a couple of years ago, I had an 11-year-old cousin asking me if I’m going to fight Jake Paul. An 11-year-old who never watches boxing unless I’m in the ring is going to watch boxing and asked me if I’m going to go against somebody. If you have someone who has this kind of audience, that commands this kind of audience one night, why, if he’s only fighting on one night, why haven’t we done something to take advantage of his participation in the sport?”
Paul co-founded Most Valuable Promotions, which has organized this bout and also promotes Amanda Serrano, who fights Katie Taylor in a rematch in the co-main event.
He has been vocal about his intentions to use his influence in order to draw attention to the fighters that MVP represents, but that progress has been minimal. Serrano was already a star and considered one of the best female fighters ever, and the rest of MVP’s fighters are far from household names.
The platform for Friday’s fight does present an intriguing opportunity for the sport, though.
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The fight will be live-streamed on Netflix, free for their nearly 283 million subscribers worldwide. That marks a significant departure from the vast majority of the most anticipated fights, which are usually on expensive pay-per-views, which turns away a lot of fans
Friday’s fight will be Netflix’s first foray into streaming live boxing matches, and one of their first into streaming live events in general. The company has stated that live events are an area they want to grow in, with WWE’s “Raw” moving to the streaming platform in 2025.
And their entrance into the boxing landscape comes at a time traditional networks are fleeing – HBO left boxing in 2018, Fox left in 2022, Showtime left last year and ESPN could soon leave when its contract with Top Rank ends in 2025.
There’s been a shift to streaming networks, as Amazon Prime signed a deal with Premier Boxing Champions when Showtime exited. DAZN has become influential as well.
Netflix has not made any commitments to boxing, but strong viewership Friday night could convince the company to invest more in the sport, in turn bringing more eyes – particularly younger eyes – to the sweet science.
“Let’s be honest, we probably have at least 100 guys who have never been heard of that are far better than Jake Paul, that Paul wouldn’t last a round with. I’m not trying to take a shot at Paul, I’m taking a shot at the sport in general,” Porter said. “You all are tuned in for this one guy that is boxing, you’ve never watched the sport before him, there’s other guys that you might actually like and at least know about.
“The business of boxing is extremely flawed to a standpoint they want to get involved and they want to embrace it, they just don’t know how.”
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