NFL
As of right now, Jake Paul is still a nuisance to the Combat Sports community. In boxing, he has knocked out former Bellator champion Ben Askren, and former UFC Champion Tyron Woodley, and he continues to chirp and mock the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community on a regular basis.
Jake Paul was a Disney star as a kid and turned to YouTube where his fame blossomed. His older brother Logan Paul has made a wealthy living from YouTube as well. The Paul brothers have made a dent in pop culture and it seems as if they are just gaining traction.
Logan Paul has entered the WWE and has proven to be very athletic and entertaining. He is unfortunately sidelined at this time with a torn ACL in his knee. Then Jake Paul just defeated one of the most decorated strikers in UFC history, Anderson Silva, in a boxing match. Although Silva is 47 years old, many believed Silva could defeat the inexperienced Paul.
Amidst the build-up to the Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva bout, Jake Paul would consistently mention how Dana White (the President of the UFC) doesn’t pay his fighters enough and that UFC fighters are being treated unfairly. At one of the press conferences Jake Paul bet Silva that if Paul were to win the fight, Silva would have to join Paul in an effort to create a ‘fighters union’. The fighters Union would be similar to a players association in the NBA or NFL where those associations negotiate things like pay, paying conditions, health care, etc. with their leagues.
Even though Paul is advocating for fighter pay, some believed it to be a shtick.
Now, Jake Paul has announced that he has signed with the Professional Fighters League and that he is going to be the head of Fighter Advocacy for the “Pay Per View Super Fight Division”. Where fighters are going to be receiving 50% of the revenue!
Paul is backing up his words with the most solid actions since he began speaking about fighter pay.
In professional wrestling, you have the ‘heels’ and the ‘heroes’. Both are needed in the sports entertainment world because both fans and haters of the heels or heroes are going to tune into the events they’re in because they want to either see the hero win or the heel lose. With a minority amount of folks want to see the heel win and the hero lose. Either way, Jake Paul is drawing eyes and ears to what he does next.
If Jake Paul is able to win an MMA fight, create some valid super fights in the PFL (where these fighters are getting paid 50% of revenue), and continue his success, I believe we could see a lot of opinions change on this Disney kid turned combat sports competitor.
