Say what you will about Jake Paul – and there is plenty you can say if you believe in the sanctity of this sport often referred to as “the sweet science.” But whatever you may think of Paul or of the notion of him fighting Anthony Joshua next, he deserves a mountain of credit for how far he’s already gone in boxing.
He got famous on Vine, and then YouTube, and then the Disney Channel, and he first entered the world of boxing by squaring off against fellow YouTubers in fights that seemed no more serious than William “Refrigerator” Perry vs. Manute Bol or “Stuttering John” Melendez vs. Lee “Crazy Cabbie” Mroszak.
His first couple of bouts were publicity stunts, nothing more. Boxing was a way to build Paul’s “brand,” to capitalize on a culture where you can become famous for being famous and then use your fame to accrue more fame.
Understanding that context, you have to appreciate that Paul, who had his first pro fight at age 23 with almost no amateur career, has become what he’s become at age 28.
And what is that, exactly? What has he become?
A cruiserweight contender?
No. Absolutely not, regardless of what any money-hungry alphabet group’s rankings may say. You don’t become a contender without defeating at least one contender – not in the world of merit-based rankings, anyway.
A legitimate professional cruiserweight boxer?
Yes. Absolutely so. He has learned his craft, improved his technique and developed poise and basic ring generalship to go along with credible punching power.
Ignore the big names on his record, like geriatric Mike Tyson, apathetic Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr and assorted over-the-hill MMA fighters. It’s the no-names on Paul’s resume that provide his professional bona fides. It’s the easy KO wins over Andre August and Ryan Bourland. Those are the bouts that confirm Paul is a legit pro – because the results make clear there are plenty of other professional boxers he is far better than.
Paul is also a master self-marketer, and he is an elite women’s boxing promoter. As a boxer, he is neither a master nor elite. But he is a competent pro – and that’s a lot more than anyone could have expected him to be back when he was testing the waters against Deji Olatundi or Ali Eson Gib.
So, full credit to Jake. He’s come a long way.
And yet, despite how far he’s come, he belongs in the ring with Anthony Joshua like my two-year-old nephew’s finger paintings belong in the Louvre.
Actually, that’s a terrible analogy. The security guards at the Louvre will not threaten my nephew’s short-term or long-term health for knocking on the door and asking the museum to hang his artwork.
Before we go any further, let me communicate clearly that I don’t believe Joshua and Paul will actually fight each other. I suspect that whatever conversations are taking place behind the scenes about this matchup are mostly calculated discussions about how “AJ” and “The Problem Child” can best use each other to keep their respective names in headlines while they separately negotiate for lower-profile fights (like Joshua’s mooted meeting with Tony Yoka).
But I suppose I must acknowledge there is a non-zero chance that the fight happens. And I suppose there is a higher non-zero chance that either Paul or Joshua – or both men – is seriously entertaining the idea of the fight.
Joshua’s trainer, Ben Davison, recently told BoxingScene’s Tris Dixon that he is opposed to the fight, that it is flat-out unsafe for a championship-caliber 6-foot-6, 250-pound man who has been boxing for nearly 20 years to engage in gloved combat with a club fighter-caliber 6-foot-1, 200-pound man who first started learning the sport seven years ago.
But he feared it could happen anyway, for one simple reason: money.
Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn basically said the same last month, declaring that Joshua vs. Paul “probably breaks the internet.”
No question about it, the fight would generate a lot of money. Humanity loves a freak show in a boxing ring, as proven by the viewership for Paul-Tyson and the pay-per-view numbers for Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor.
You may recall that for the latter fight, Mayweather ended up with a purse reported to be as high as $280 million, while McGregor may have made as much as $130 million.
AJ vs. Paul isn’t getting into that range, no matter how broken the internet is left in its wake. But could both fighters make $50 million or more? Sadly, the answer is yes.
There’s a whole lot of dough to be made here. And the name of the game is prizefighting, as boxers and managers and promoters and assorted bootlickers are quick to remind us whenever they decide to sell out.
But when do you have enough money? When are you above selling out and taking a fight purely because the check has a lot of zeroes on the end of it?
Search “Jake Paul net worth” via your engine of choice, and you’ll find estimates ranging from $80 million to $120 million.
I recognize that he lives a somewhat extravagant lifestyle, that he has businesses to run and employees to pay, and thus he needs more millions on hand than your average freelance boxing writer trying to pay off a modest mortgage in the ’burbs. Still, if you’re worth about $100 million (give or take $20 mil), you can live off the interest your money earns for five lifetimes.
You presumably want more money, because if there’s one thing I know about obscenely rich people, it’s that they always want more money (see the lengths billionaires will go to in order to avoid paying taxes and to keep the minimum wage down). But you don’t need more money.
Joshua, meanwhile, is estimated to be worth even more than Paul — perhaps as much as £195 million, which is equivalent to about $262 million in American dollars. With that kind of wealth, unless your accountant is a crook or you’re unable to control basic impulses or do basic math, you should never need to receive a paycheck again, nor should your children or your children’s children or your children’s children’s children.
I get it – everyone wants to keep making money while they can.
But there are certain fights where the only justification for taking them is “because it was too much money to pass up” that come with a downside that should make it possible to, indeed, pass up. And Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul is just such a fight.
The downside for Paul is obvious. Boxing is a dangerous sport, as we were reminded in the most horrible possible way with twin tragedies in Japan last weekend. Every time any fighter steps into the ring, they are taking the risk that they will not be around to enjoy the money they’re about to make.
That risk is amplified immensely when you’re a relatively novice cruiserweight taking on a man about 25% larger than you who is one of the hardest pure punchers the sport has ever seen.
Whatever the chance is that Paul will suffer permanent damage in a typical boxing match, it is magnitudes greater if he fights Joshua. This should require no further explanation, no expert analysis from a medical professional. Giant men who have spent half their lives perfecting the art of throwing a punch pack a lot of potential to seriously hurt smaller, less experienced men.
The downside for Joshua is different, but no less pronounced. By agreeing to fight Paul, he degrades himself. He makes a mockery of his sport and his place in it. By acknowledging that Paul is somehow worth his time, he forces everyone to reevaluate his standing in the heavyweight division.
Remember how embarrassed AJ looked to be flattening Francis Ngannou? He scored one of the most picturesque knockouts of his life and he did not celebrate. He walked back toward his corner, arms down, knowing all he’d done was exactly what he was supposed to do. He seemed to know that if he raised his arms, he would devalue himself by implying he thought he’d accomplished something.
And that was against a former MMA champion roughly his size who had nearly beaten Tyson Fury a few months earlier. Having to share the ring with Ngannou was nowhere near as embarrassing in a true sporting sense as having to share it with Paul – the child actor from Bizaardvark, the guy whose brother is in WWE, the sideshow boxer who picked on 58-year-old Mike Tyson.
When you’re already worth more money than you can realistically spend, is it worth embarrassing yourself for more money? What is AJ’s price to lick someone’s fungal feet on live TV? What’s his price to do the “Silence of the Lambs” Buffalo Bill tuck dance for a Cameo customer?
A guy like me may have a price for acts of humiliation. A million dollars changes my quality of life. I don’t think $100 million changes Joshua’s.
For Joshua, fighting Paul would be an act of humiliation. Win by brutal knockout in the first round, and shame on you for debasing yourself with such a spectacle. Fail to get it over with in the first round, and your stock drops immensely as a fighter – on top of the shame associated with agreeing to the fight.
And in the one-in-a-million scenario that you lose to Jake Paul, well, you’ve rewritten your boxing legacy. You’re no longer remembered for a classic win over Wladimir Klitschko or for a few decent alphabet title reigns. You’re remembered for taking the most pathetic upset loss in the history of the sport.
Is that worth it if you already have all the money you’ll ever need, several times over?
Or if you’re Paul, is finding out what happens when Joshua hits you worth it when you don’t actually need the money? I don’t mean to be insensitive, but if you wake up in a hospital bed unable to form a complete sentence, was it worth the bump to your net worth?
A fighter with nothing to lose is a dangerous fighter.
Joshua and Paul have both reached a stage of their lives where they have everything to lose.
That doesn’t mean they should stop fighting, of course. But it does mean they’d be fools to take a fight purely for the money.
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
