Beating The Odds: How Jake Paul Became The Third Highest-Paid Boxer In The World

Quick Links

Just after four professional fights, YouTuber Jake Paul became one of the highest-paid boxers in the world. According to the reports of Sportivo, over the past year, Jake Paul was named among the top three highest-paid boxers in the world, following former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. Paul has reportedly earned millions in the past year after his four professional fights.

YoutuThe 24-year-old YouTuber and Boxer are gearing up for his upcoming fight in December against the reality TV celebrity Tommy Fury. However, with his current millions earned after four rows, Paul is not done taking more money from boxing. According to various media outlets, staying true to his nickname The Problem Child, Paul did not sign up voluntarily to do the drug test before the fight and must be required to do so, which caused a stir.

Paul's Career As A YouTube Sensation and Former Disney Star

Jake Paul is known to a lot of people with his controversial vlogs where he does outrageous things. During his teenage years, when he was still 17 years old, he was already building up his career on YouTube, but during this time, he was focused more on the now-defunct Vine. His Vine videos consist of funny but often controversial skits and pranks which gained a strong following for both platforms.

Due to his popularity on the video platforms, he caught the eye of some Disney producers, and he was asked to star in Bizaardvark, a comedy series showing on the Disney channel. He was co-starring with the sensational singer and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo at the show. Season one of the show went well, but as soon as the second season began, Paul got into controversy since his antics on his YouTube videos eventually caught up with him and drew flak. The controversy is not even finished when another controversy surrounds Paul again when his neighbors complain that he and his housemates are creating nuisance on the neighborhood. According to reports, they were lighting fires in the drained swimming pool and then racing dirt bikes on their residence, which eventually drew large crowds of fans which started to bother the people living there. After these reports of Paul’s misbehavior, the Disney producers decided to abruptly dismiss him from the show, according to the information by Hollywood Reporter.

Jake Paul Goes Rouge

After being fired from the Disney show Bizaardvark, Paul, who was 20, had already jump-started his YouTube career and was already famous with his Team 10 Youtube collective. The channel garnered 8.5 million subscribers when videos of pranks and stunts on their residence were being filmed. However, when his neighbors were interviewed about his antics, they were displeased and described the situation as a war zone and a living hell. The neighbors were able to endure him starting a massive fire in the backyard, building a waterslide to shoot the people into the pool, and doing dirt bike stunts across his streets, but they had enough when he leaked his address, and a huge crowd showed up on the Beverly Grove. The neighbors of Paul met with the police and city officials to discuss the matter and to eventually file a class action suit against the YouTuber; in the end, he was sued by the owner of the house he was renting for $2.5 million.

After these incidents, Paul decided to focus more on the content on his channel. He then started ventures which tend to revolve around his young followers. This venture is yet again controversial as he was asking for money from his kid subscribers. According to Paul, education is not a vital factor in success because he did not do well in school, but he became successful, so the kids should follow his lead. So, he started his educational programs where he taught kids how to be influential and eventually make money through the internet like him. The program charges $7 where they could unlock videos that will give them a roadmap to success. However, most people complained because $7 does not unlock all of the videos, and the videos included in the $7 were just essential tips like you should own a phone, create a video based on your interest, etc. Eventually, he stopped it because of the outrage from the fans.

The Birth Of The Problem Child

Paul was eventually generated interest for British personalities KSI and Joe Weller, who is currently staging the grandest white-collar boxing event in history. According to the Upload Agency, they signed up Paul for a fight, and his first fight drew over 100 million viewers worldwide on all the channels. With the success of the first fight of Paul, the producers called out his brother Logan to be his opponent. Still, he did not budge in, and eventually, Paul had to fight KSI’s brother, Deji Olatunji, to fight him in a preliminary match. After winning the fight, he was then labeled as Jake “The Problem Child” Paul, who marked his debut in boxing and the birth of his boxing persona.

Paul decided to be a professional boxer after winning the fight and having an amateur record of 1-0. He chose to fight Tyron Woodley in a cruiserweight bout, a Showtime pay-per-view event at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 29. After winning his fight with Woodley, he fought the former welterweight champions of One Championship and UFC, Ben Askren. Their fight generated US$75 million, and after winning the battle, Paul received US$1.5 million for the pay-per-view generated on the US$75 million. However, his base pay for every row is US$690,000, but he said that he took home over seven figures overall from all his fights. He earned another US$2 million after fighting and winning against Woodley for the second time.

Sources: SCMP, Mirror UK, Insider, Sports Keeda