CLEVELAND — Yes, the title gives away what this article is going to be about. But you clicked on it for a reason. Jake Paul is polarizing. There's no doubt about it. He walked into Thursday's press conference to discuss his fourth boxing match on Sunday against Tyron Woodley with no shirt on, and what he told DAZN News and another member of the media was 'like a million dollars worth' of jewelry around his neck and his right arm. There were more media members attending the presser than last week's Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas fight.
After the presser concluded, the Paul and Woodley fight camps got involved in a heated altercation that started with a verbal exchange between Woodley's mother and Paul's team member and boxer J'Leon Love. The skirmish blew up on social media, was the No. 1 trend on Twitter and Google for several hours, and became one of the most searched items on Google Trends with over 100,000 searches. And that was when we were three days away from the fight.
There already was a ton of buzz coming into this weekend's fight, but it went to another level after the conclusion of Thursday's incident. If what occurred involved Conor McGregor, Canelo Alvarez, or Anthony Joshua, it definitely would get attention. But not this type of attention to where the world is still talking about it 24 hours later with multitudes of articles and videos all over social media showing what occurred.
"I think I'm definitely up there," Paul responds to DAZN News when asked if he's the biggest star in combat sports. "I don't like to sing my own praises. But I feel like because of my following and because of the media attention that I'm getting, that my name is definitely up there. But the funny thing is, I just feel like I'm getting started. I'm just getting warmed up. I haven't even scratched the surface of what I can accomplish in this arena."
The reach Paul has is unrivaled in combat sports. He's got over 44.8 million followers on social media along with 20.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Is he brash? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. He's 24-years-old worth millions of dollars with the goal of one day becoming a billionaire. What person at that age though is perfect regardless of financial status? No one.
The attention Paul's brought to the fight game is undeniable. Woodley is making his biggest guaranteed purse of his career, which is mind-numbing since he's a former UFC welterweight champion who headlined three pay-per-views and being on the co-main event of cards with McGregor and Jon Jones on top of the marquee. Former MMA champion Ben Askren gave Paul the credibility he needed when the social-media-influencer-turned-boxer knocked the former UFC star in under two minutes. For less than 120 seconds of work, Askren made a reported $500,000.
Pay is a constant issue in combat sports, particularly mixed martial arts. Fighters make peanuts compared to the major professional sports in the United States. Paul's consistently called out UFC President Dana White for what he feels are unfair wages. Recently, MMA veteran and former Bellator competitor Anthony Taylor revealed he got paid more to spar with Paul than for any fight in his professional career.
“I had the opportunity to fight in Cage Warriors, but I couldn’t pass up the money Jake was offering,” Taylor, who faces Tommy Fury on the Paul-Woodley undercard, told Betway Insider. “I’m getting paid more money as Jake’s training partner in two months than I made in my whole entire MMA career in six years.”
Paul's gratitude began before then as he donated $5,000 to UFC Women's Flyweight fighter Sarah Alpar's Go Fund Me to help her become a full-time fighter and help with expenses. With the publicity of Paul's donation, Alpar raised over $35,000 when the goal was $30,000.
The goodwill didn't stop there when Paul donated his $100,000 'Sleepy Conor McGregor' chain to Dustin Poirier in July.
Woodley feels that Paul is 'a vulture of combat sports' and isn't really wanting to help invoke change in boxing and mixed martial arts.
"I've done more for this sport than he has in his however many years," Paul said after the incident to another member who was with DAZN News. "I made it a point to make Tyron get his biggest payday of his career. This is the biggest payday of his career times four. I made that a point. It wasn't his managers doing good negotiations. We’re like, ‘Yo, pay him that’. We want him to be excited. And by the way, everyone on the card, it's the biggest payday of their career.
"So I'm not just saying it, I'm actually doing it. That's taking money out of my pockets to give all boxers on the card the biggest payday of their lives. It's disrespectful for him to try and discredit that, especially because I put him on this pedestal. Without me, he would be the guy that got cut by the UFC and is just sitting there doing nothing with his life, trying to become a 40-year-old rapper. Steve Carell is gonna make a new movie about him. It's gonna be “40-year-old Rapper”.
Fighter pay gets talked about, but no one with name value is willing to bring it up because they are getting theirs and are unwilling to others. Paul is the exception because you can hear the sincerity in his voice that he wants to help and invoke change in two sports where respect and gender equality doesn't exist.
Look at Amanda Serrano.
She trained with Paul in her native Puerto Rico leading up to Sunday's card. Serrano is a seven-division world champion and will defend her WBC and WBO featherweight titles against Yamileth Mercado in the show's co-main event. Currently, Serrano sits No. 3 on DAZN's Women's Pound-for-Pound list and could move up with another excellent performance this weekend.
Boxing hardcore fans know about Serrano, but she's never been placed in a high-profile position on a significant show. Not anymore, thanks to Paul. He has shown admiration for Serrano, respects her work, and wants her to be the fight before his.
"For this whole week, Amanda Serrano was saying, 'Oh, I'm on the card'. To me, that didn't seem right that she was just saying that she's on the card," Paul said to open Thursday's press conference. "So I want to make her the co-main event.
"She's deserving of that. She's one of the greatest to do ever do it."
An impressive showing from Serrano in front of a massive audience could and should vault her into a bigger stratosphere, equating to prominent fight positions and increased paydays.
Every fighter on this show from Montana Love to Mercado, will get significant attention because they are on this event. The more times fighters compete, it's more opportunity to show the world what they can do and increases their profile every which way.
Is Jake Paul an angel from the heavens? Admittedly, no.
He won't solve issues like world hunger, but he is good for combat sports whether we like it or not.