We are about one week removed from Jake Paul’s last fight, a tremendous challenge in which so many hoped the upstart boxer would fail. And we are about one week away from Paul’s next promotion, part of a tremendous challenge at which everyone should hope the upstart businessman succeeds.

This isn’t yet another column solely intent on criticizing Jake Paul. Plenty of those words have already been published. Some of them originated from this very keyboard. But for every dubious chapter in the history of Jake Paul the boxer, there is more to the rest of the story.

While his boxing career is the grift that keeps on grifting, it is helping fund some legitimate good in the sport. 

It is the grift that keeps on giving. 

What started with signing Amanda Serrano in 2021 has since grown well beyond their partnership. This year in particular, the company Paul co-founded, Most Valuable Promotions, has added numerous fighters to its stable. Most of them are women, many of them are accomplished, and all are seeking the kind of popularity and paydays that had eluded them despite their talent and titles. 

“The best decision I've made in boxing,” Serrano said in early 2024, about two and a half years into the relationship, which she’s since re-upped for what should last the remainder of her career. “It changed my life totally. [...] They've definitely added more zeroes to my bank account, so I'm truly blessed for that.”

Serrano joined MVP about a month after appearing on the undercard of Jake Paul’s first bout with Tyron Woodley. She has fought nine times since, mostly on shows promoted or co-promoted by MVP, and four of her bouts were on Paul’s undercards. She was also supposed to headline in her native Puerto Rico in March 2024 against Nina Meinke, with Paul in the co-feature slot instead, until chemicals from hair products affected her vision and forced her to pull out of the bout at the last second.

Most notably, Serrano shared a trilogy with Katie Taylor, with their first two wars receiving Fight of the Year honors. Taylor-Serrano I drew a big crowd in 2022 to the big room at Madison Square Garden, the first time two women headlined at the storied venue. Taylor-Serrano II was seen by tens of millions on Netflix in 2024 as a massive audience began to settle in for Paul’s main event with Mike Tyson. Taylor-Serrano III returned to MSG and headed up its own Netflix stream this past July.

The Taylor-Serrano III undercard consisted solely of women’s fights, many of them having recently signed with MVP. 

Among the women who are under contract with MVP are: 

  • Jasmine Artiga (a junior bantamweight titleholder)
  • Alycia Baumgardner (formerly the undisputed junior lightweight champion, still a unified titleholder)
  • Chantelle Cameron (formerly the undisputed junior welterweight champion)
  • Caroline Dubois (a lightweight titleholder)
  • Shadasia Green (unified super middleweight titleholder)
  • Stephanie Han (a lightweight titleholder)
  • Holly Holm (an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee who has returned to this sport after competing for years in MMA)
  • Cherneka Johnson (the undisputed bantamweight champion)
  • Savannah Marshall (who previously held the undisputed super middleweight championship and a middleweight world title)
  • Shurretta Metcalf (now a former bantamweight titleholder)
  • Desley Robinson (unified middleweight titleholder)
  • Ellie Scotney (unified junior featherweight titleholder)
  • Dina Thorslund (now a former unified bantamweight titleholder)
  • Yokasta Valle (a strawweight world titleholder who also held belts in two other weight classes)

This isn’t an exhaustive list; MVP’s website names 31 women, 14 of whom are currently titleholders (Dubois, who had not yet been added to the page, would make it 32 women and 15 titleholders). Including Paul, the stable has 12 men, most of whom are in the prospect phase of their careers.

Johnson was among those who spoke to ESPN’s Andreas Hale for an excellent article in late 2024 – prior to her signing with MVP – about the growing popularity and paydays for women in boxing, and particularly the need for it to reach beyond a handful of superstars. For too long, there weren’t enough dates for women, and those spots didn’t pay much. Johnson’s sole outing that year netted her about $13,000. Another bantamweight, Ebanie Bridges, who has also since joined MVP, recalled being offered just $3,000 for a title fight in 2020. Both boosted their income via OnlyFans.

All these signees are hoping that their careers will only improve now that they are working with Paul and Bidarian.

“We all want just to showcase our skills and what we’re made of and get the recognition we deserve, and they’re providing that,” Johnson said earlier this year in an interview with Ariel Helwani. Later, she said of Paul: “I can’t say anything bad about Jake. He’s doing great things for boxing, for women’s boxing. He’s bringing new eyes to the sport.”

The last MVP show, Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, was supported by Baumgardner defeating Leila Beaudoin in the co-feature, and the free preliminary stream had three women’s title fights, in which Dubois, Johnson and Valle scored decision wins.

The next MVP show, headlined by Serrano fighting in Puerto Rico against Reina Tellez, is scheduled to include three other women’s matches, with MVP signees accounting for four of those bouts’ six participants. The most notable of them is Han vs. Holm in the co-feature. Bridges, who is returning from a long layoff that included having a baby, will face Alexis Araiza Mones. And bantamweight Krystal Rosado will take on Tania Walters.

This is a far cry from the way things were before Claressa Shields, Serrano and Taylor. And that is in large part because of Shields, Serrano and Taylor themselves. 

Just as how Gina Carano, Ronda Rousey and others helped build early interest in women’s mixed martial arts, setting the table for the more talented fighters who now compete in the sport.

Just as how the NCAA basketball tournament in 2024 has since led to more people watching the WNBA and women’s college hoops than had previously been the case.

And just as how professional wrestling at last presented its women as headliners and superstars, rather than “divas” whose matches were often treated by some fans as an opportunity to head to the bathroom.

But none of this happens in boxing unless networks and promoters invest in women. And MVP is able to invest so much in women’s boxing in part because of the money Paul earns, which is itself thanks to the attention Paul receives. 

Paul’s foray into being a boxer started off as a curiosity, taking advantage of his popularity online to face another social media influencer in the ring. The success of that event led to more: against a former NBA player; mixed martial artists; and Tommy Fury, who is Tyson Fury’s half-brother but whose talent is a far smaller fraction. Still, Fury beat Paul by split decision in early 2023. But fascination in Paul’s fights didn’t dissipate. What started as a curiosity had become a sideshow. 

Paul, to his credit, was regularly working in the gym in order to improve, to go beyond his athletic background and whatever could be accomplished during training camps. Paul – also to his credit, but otherwise to our dismay – was an expert at matchmaking to engender interest without endangering his position as cash cow. So he fought another former MMA star, and then easily beat a pair of actual pro boxers whose significant limitations had already been obvious before they met Paul.

Paul disposed of one of those pro boxers, the 17-2 Ryan Bourland, on that March 2024 show that was supposed to be headlined by Serrano vs. Meinke. Afterward, it seemed that the only direction left for him to go was to start working his way up through the cruiserweight rankings, taking on viable opponents and proving that he could actually be a real contender.

That’s not what happened. Paul promptly announced that he was going to face Mike Tyson. That fight wound up being postponed because Tyson had health issues caused by an ulcer. Paul instead stopped Mike Perry, a former MMA fighter turned bareknuckle boxer, and then met Tyson in their rescheduled match in November 2024. The sideshows had now become spectacles.

The Tyson fight was a travesty, the much younger and fresher Paul carrying the aesthetically in-shape but physically ancient and worn-down Tyson for eight rounds. Again, it felt as if Paul had squeezed all the juice he could out of the charade. The circus didn’t yet need to leave town, however. As a quote that is often attributed to P.T. Barnum goes – a source that’s never actually been verified – “There's a sucker born every minute.” Time wasn’t up, not when there were more fools eager to part with their money.

Paul took on a version of Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr well past both his best form and weight in June and sold it as him taking on a former world titleholder. And then he announced a November exhibition with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, a current world titleholder in what should still be his prime years, though someone several inches and 65lbs lighter than Paul.

Paul vs. Davis was canceled due to new domestic violence allegations against Tank. Instead, Paul had a pro bout against former unified heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua on December 19. It was far from a highlight-reel night for Paul. Instead, he spent the first several rounds largely staying away from Joshua, then he began to fall apart and fall down from exhaustion and the impact of Joshua’s shots. Finally, Paul was posterized by Joshua’s knockout blows in the sixth. Paul suffered a broken jaw and will likely be out of action for some time.

Don’t expect him to start up on a more acceptable, more traditional path upon his return. The grift will keep on grifting. There’s far more money for Paul in one night of the circus than there would be for taking on any three current cruiserweights combined, including the titleholders.

There’s a reason Netflix is in the business of showing special events, not in the business of broadcasting boxing. And two of the streaming service’s four boxing matches have involved Paul as a boxer: the bouts with Tyson and Joshua. Paul was a promoter for Taylor-Serrano III; the other, which didn’t involve MVP, was September’s fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford.

People will continue to watch Paul until their curiosity is gone, or until the novelty has worn off. And neither of those things will happen so long as they wonder how he will perform against whomever he faces. Or they will hate-watch him, hoping to see him lose, unintentionally perpetuating the person they otherwise dislike.

Paul, ever the wise marketer, is seeking to regain his heat – pro wrestling parlance that is fitting given that his brother, Logan, has become a very good heel within the WWE. 

Instead of slinking into the shadows, embarrassed to show his face, Paul and MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian are keeping his name in the headlines, with quotes and videos that are sometimes delusional, sometimes pure spin, and sometimes clearly done with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

He will be back, much to the chagrin of many. He will be much richer for it. But he is also doing more than siphoning what he can from the sport and then leaving town. Paul may be a snake-oil salesman as a boxer, but he is seemingly trying to put forth a good product as a promoter.

Boxing fans can get too tied up in allegiances to promoters and the rivalries between those companies and their competitors. In reality, the best thing for boxing is for the business to succeed, and it’s even better when the business succeeds while putting on fights that people want to see and can afford to watch.

It’s hard to say just yet that Jake Paul’s own fights are growing the sport’s regular audience beyond his events. It is clear, however, that he is doing a lot to bring women’s boxing closer to its potential, and that he is also seeking to build male prospects who could also have a future.

We can grit our teeth as the grift keeps on grifting. But unlike what happened in the ring against Joshua, Jake Paul the promoter is giving just as well as he is taking.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.