Since turning pro in 2020 Jake Paul has put on some of boxing’s biggest events. He has battled former MMA stars like Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva. He has faced more traditional boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tommy Fury. More recently, Paul has appeared in mega events, taking on Hall of Fame heavyweight Mike Tyson and more recently, former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
These days, Paul is focusing on the promotional side of his business. Since co-founding Most Valuable Promotions, Paul has invested heavily in women’s boxing. Recently, MVP inked multifight deals with ESPN and Sky Sports to broadcast MVP shows. On Friday, MVPW, as the series is branded, will put on its first show in the United States when unified 130-pound champion Alycia Baumgardner defends her titles Bo Mi Re Shin inside the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
On Monday, Paul discussed his new women’s boxing series, the state of his own career, the rise of Zuffa Boxing and more in a wide-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated.
(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity)
Sports Illustrated: Jake you are a promoter, an influencer, a boxer. Are we still an active boxer? Are we calling you that these days, Jake?
Jake Paul: Yeah, I think so. I mean, technically not active right now, but I think a lot of fighters take periods of time off. So just letting the jaw recover and we’ll be back in action as soon as I’m ready.
SI: You spent the last year vacuuming up most of the top women’s fighters there. By my count, you have six of the top 10 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list. Tell me: In your mind, what is the goal of building out this promotion? Five years from now, what do you hope that it looks like?
JP: I like to make the comparison of the NBA to the WNBA, and I think the WNBA took a long time to really find traction and to find superstars like Caitlin Clark. And I think MVPW, our goal is to speed up that process on the women’s side of things and women growing in sport in general. And really, it all started with Amanda Serrano and seeing her star power and seeing how she just needed a spotlight to tip the edge and become a mainstream name. And so really replicating that over and over and giving these women a platform, the best place to be, the best promotion, the best paydays, to get them the credit and the spotlight that they deserve.
SI: So let me follow that thread then. The WNBA has 100% of the market share of women basketball players. Do you need to have 100% of the women’s boxers under your umbrella to achieve what you want to achieve?
JP: Definitely not. I think we’re at, like you said, 60% out of the top 10 already, and I think Alycia Baumgardner is one of the future faces of the sport, if not the face of the sport. And so we are down to work with other promotions to make mega fights happen. I think there’s big fights to make with Claressa Shields and Shadasia Green and all of these people. Alycia wants to fight her. And we’re down to work. But I believe in the long run that all of these women will want to work with MVP. We have the best distribution for women’s fighting and the biggest platforms and the biggest paydays and the most amount of followers to promote these women too. So I think eventually everyone will want to be under our umbrella, but it’s not necessary for us to achieve our goal.
SI: MVPW got off to a good start this past weekend with the Caroline Dubois–Terri Harper fight. That was two names, good fight, title unification, exactly what I think you’re probably looking for with these types of fights. This weekend, you’ve got Alycia Baumgardner who is in a good fight. Shin’s a good fighter. Gave Dubois a tough fight recently. What I was wondering when this card was announced was, why not Baumgardner against Amanda Serrano? You’ve got Serrano with all those belts at 126, Baumgardner sitting there at 130. I have to imagine it crossed your mind to have those two mix it up. Why was that fight not among the first you were looking to make?
JP: We want to make that fight happen, and personally, I think for me it’s one of my favorite fights that I could see in women’s boxing. And so I’ve been pushing for it on my end of things, trust me. We have time though. We have time. That’s the beauty of these things. And even just personally in my career, it’s like all these names, all these people want to fight, we’re going to get to it. Just everyone can be a little bit patient. But I believe that’s going to happen at some point and it makes sense, and I think it’s one of the biggest fights to make in boxing, period.
SI: You get the impression from talking to Amanda that she still wants those kinds of fights?
JP: Yeah, I do, and I think she is a warrior and I think she’s down to fight anyone. She’s sparring guys in the gym every single day and is still an elite force. And I think her last fight was very impressive just in terms of output, and she clearly hasn’t slowed down one bit. And Alycia’s name is continuing to grow, so I think when the stars align it’s going to make sense, and I believe Amanda will want to do it.
SI: You said you didn't need to consolidate all the women. Zuffa Boxing, at least nominally, is trying to become the umbrella for all of boxing. They want to become a UBO, which would allow them to create their own rankings, own title. All that goes into it. Is forming some kind of UBO a goal of yours? In other words, do you want to have the MVP belt for women to fight for in some of your cards?
JP: I don’t think that’s the goal, to become a UBO, but I do see a world where there is an MVP belt and people respect it and understand it. And I don’t think we want to essentially become a league at this point in time. I don’t think it’s even possible in the sport of boxing. We love working with other sanctioning bodies and I think they’re important for the sport, and I don’t think anyone has the power to completely flip boxing, or the money. It’s not just power. It’s a lot of money that it’s going to take. And I don’t think anyone in the sport has the ability to just completely own everything.
That’s what’s great about boxing. It’s almost a democracy in that sense, and that’s what keeps the fighters in control, keeps them important. And that’s what I worry about with Zuffa, is if they do take a big share of the market, I think in the long run, fighters will look back and be upset that they contributed to that almost to their own demise, and eventually will be getting paid less and less if they’re running a monopoly like they are with the UFC.
SI: Alright, let me ask you lastly about the crown jewel of MVP, which is you. You are the biggest name in the MVP stable. You’re coming off that fight against Anthony Joshua. You went six rounds with A.J. You get your jaw busted in that fight. Where’s your head at right now about your career? Are you thinking about what your next fight is going to be? Are you thinking about what your next goal is?
JP: It’s a good question, and not super thinking about the next opponent necessarily, and more thinking about what the overall goal is. And I think that is still to make the path to world champion and to fight people at my weight class. The one outlier is Francis Ngannou, but I’m definitely a cruiserweight. I learned that against Anthony Joshua. And so fighting at cruiser weight, fighting where I feel the most comfortable, and I’m 29, I think a lot of the champions and such in and around my weight class are 35, 36, 37. Obviously you have the young guy in Jai Opetaia, but I believe I can have a long career at cruiser weight and make the path to world champion.
SI: Let’s say that the winner of this Zurdo Ramirez–David Benavidez fight on May 2 comes out afterwards, says, “I’ll fight Jake Paul.” Do you feel like you need more fights to be ready for something like that?
JP: Yeah, 100%. And that’s something where fighting Anthony Joshua was a great experience. He has a great ring IQ, learning, being in there with someone much bigger, much more talented than me. He’s an Olympic gold medalist. And so all of these experiences continue to make me better. And I don’t know when or where I will make a run for the belt, but I think that is in the cards. I believe I would need more time to actually be able to compete against some of those guys, but that’s part of the sport and that’s part of the work that I need to put in now. And I think a lot of people still doubt it and doubt the seriousness of it, but if you would have said six years ago when I first turned pro that I would have ever made it into the top 15 cruiser weight rankings, people would have never believed it. So what can happen three, four, five years from now?
SI: You mentioned Ngannou. Is it more likely we see you in with Ngannou in a boxing ring after Ngannou fights on this MVP card next month? Or will we see you win with a more traditional boxer as you head down that cruiser weight path?
JP: We will see. I think at this point in my career when you are at the top and there’s a lot of options, I think just lining up a lot of different options and then choosing what’s best at that point in time. And it’s a blessed position to be in in this sport, and there’s only a few fighters who are in that position to be able to pick and choose and do whatever they want. And so I think at the point in time when I’m cleared to spar and to really get back into it, me and my coaches and Nakisa [Bidarian] will make the right decision to figure out who I’m going to fight.
SI: If you could do the Anthony Joshua fight over again knowing how it played out, knowing the result of your broken jaw, would you do it again?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as While Jake Paul’s Jaw Recovers, He’s Focusing on Women’s Boxing.
