Still have an issue with Jake Paul’s involvement in boxing? The problem lies with you.
Inside the ring, the YouTuber has produced a 5-0 record with four of those victories coming by the way of knockout.
But outside the ring is where his greatest contribution to the sweet science is being made.
On Wednesday, Paul, the promoter, appeared by Amanda Serrano’s side at Madison Square Garden to help announce his charge’s mega bout against Katie Taylor.
The Irish superstar’s undisputed lightweight crown will be on the line April 30, marking the first time in 140 years of boxing at MSG that two women headline a fight at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
After stalled negotiations before Paul was ever involved, he helped push the needle to help make the fight happen in collaboration with Eddie Hearn whose Matchroom Boxing outfit represents Taylor.
“They’ve been trying to put this fight on,” Paul told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour earlier in the week, “I think they just needed that extra sauce.”
The fight being cemented means Serrano and Taylor will be “getting paid in the seven figures,” “plus pay-per-view” shares, according to Paul.
That’s where any possible apathy for Paul being involved in boxing should come to a full stop. At 25-years-old, he’s moving the needle and making necessary changes for women’s boxing.
In September 2018, I penned a piece for Sporting News about veteran women’s boxers, such as Serrano and Heather Hardy, being fed up with the wage gap between women and men boxers.
As part of it, Serrano, a then-five-division world champion, now seven-division world champ, spoke about having to cross over to MMA just to earn additional paychecks since boxing alone wasn’t cutting it.
"If I would have got the respect and the money that girls deserve, I would have stayed in boxing," Serrano told me at the time.
"To be a female boxer, you have to have a 9-to-5 [job], and it sucks because boxing is a dangerous sport. You have to fully concentrate. You can't just say after work [that] you're going to train. Female boxers have to have an extra income."
The fact that Paul helped change that in a relatively short time should be saluted.
“I’m a fight fan, I fell in love with boxing and I’m passionate about boxing all the way around,” Paul told the media at MSG on Wednesday.
“When I met Amanda Serrano and I heard her story and how hard she’s worked, I seen how hard she is trained, she’s getting paid pennies on the dollar and being taken advantage of from people in her career. She needed help and guidance, to be put on a pedestal – she’s a superstar.
“I’m excited to be promoter Paul and we might be sitting next to each other a few more times in the future,” he tacked on.
“I’ll always be involved in this sport and pushing to make boxing a better place.”
He’s already succeeding at the latter … even if longtime staples of the sport feel irked by his presence.
With Taylor-Serrano sharing the same April 30 fight date as Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez in their junior lightweight unification tilt, veteran Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told iFL TV : “I mean, as good a fight as that (Taylor-Serrano) is — come on. You know, whatever reason it is, people don’t particularly pay attention to the women’s fights.”
Paul caught wind of the comment and fired back.
And just like that, promoter Paul has helped to make a difference in women’s boxing and the sport as a whole. And he’s not stopping there.
Paul has also been using his platform to spread awareness to his 20.4 million subscribers on YouTube and 22 million more followers on Instagram and Twitter about how the UFC should pay its fighters more, blasting Dana White over heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou’s recent $600,000 fight purse.
Whether UFC fighters can achieve a pay scale that they deserve remains to be seen but Paul is going to continue to push for it as he’s done here with women’s boxing.
“Today is about Amanda and Katie, the two best female boxers in the world right now, they deserve this stage, this historic payday and they deserve to settle who is the pound-for-pound best which is why I’m excited to see this fight,” Paul said on the MSG dais.
“It’s also about Ann Wolfe, Christy Martin, Leila Ali, Mia St. John and so many other legendary boxers that helped lay the foundations for the ladies to be sitting here today,” he added.
“It’s about Claressa Shields, Mikaela Mayer, Alycia Baumgardner and other amazing professionals currently in the sport. Most of all it’s about the future young women and girls all around the world who will see April 30 as a moment that made the impossible, possible, equality as it’s meant to be.”
So when it comes to Paul’s involvement in boxing, embrace it — especially on the promoter side. Promoter Paul is moving the needle and wiping away gross negligence from boxing's past in the process.
What's there not to like about that?