Youtuber, content material creator, entrepreneur, self-proclaimed face of boxing: Jake Paul has turn into a grasp of re-invention throughout his meteoric rise to fame and fortune.

Lucrative profession in fight sports activities

The 27-year-old from Cleveland, who defeated veteran heavyweight icon Mike Tyson in an eight-round made-for-Netflix bout on Friday, has parlayed his fame as an web movie star right into a profitable profession in fight sports activities.

Paul, who’s estimated to have a web price of $80 million based on the Celebrity Net Worth web site, first rose to prominence in 2013, posting short-form movies to the now-shuttered web site Vine, garnering thousands and thousands of followers and billions of views.

He subsequently transported his knack for creating viral content material to YouTube in 2014, launching his personal channel which turned famend for controversies, sensible jokes and hip-hop.

In 2015 he made a foray into tv, signing for the Disney Channel within the teen sequence “Bizaardvark.”

That relationship resulted in 2017 amid growing media consideration on a few of Paul’s Youtube stunts similar to setting furnishings on hearth in an empty swimming pool at his luxurious residence in Los Angeles.

Paul gained wider consideration nevertheless when he turned his hand to movie star boxing, a pattern began by his elder brother Logan Paul who fought English influencer KSI in a pay-per-view beginner contest in Manchester in 2018.

Though ridiculed by the standard boxing world, that battle – the place Jake Paul appeared on the undercard in opposition to English influencer Deji Olatunji – gained consideration from the game’s moneymen for promoting some 1.3 million pay-per-view buys.

‘A strange one’

Two years later, Jake Paul made his skilled debut in a battle in opposition to English Youtuber AnEsonGib, showing as a part of the undercard alongside a bona-fide world middleweight title bout.

Paul has continued to battle sporadically within the years since, incomes grudging respect from the boxing world after a split-decision loss to Briton Tommy Fury final 12 months.

Paul’s success in rebranding himself as a authentic boxer has been pushed by the thousands and thousands of followers he already has by way of social media, guaranteeing eyeballs on occasions he takes half in and making him a beautiful proposition for promoters.

“He’s in a position that most young boxers are never in,” mentioned former welterweight world champion Shawn Porter, who now works as a tv analyst.

“He has a whole bunch of hundreds to thousands and thousands of individuals watching him, the place most even Olympians, when now we have our first 5-10 fights, there’s no person within the stadium, we don’t have the identical form of viewers.

“I think that’s the main thing – he’s a rookie who is getting true professional exposure.”

Paul’s brash type although is to not everybody’s liking. Press conferences selling Friday’s battle in opposition to Tyson in Texas have been invariably laced with profanities, whereas Paul appeared for an open exercise on Tuesday sporting a weird feather head-dress within the type of a rooster.

“Jake Paul is a strange one, but I like what he’s doing for boxing,” British battle promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned in a 2022 interview.

“He’s putting the work in and he’s not terrible. But it’ll be a pleasant day when someone chins him.”

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By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse