Jake Paul and the grains of nuance around circus fight with Mike Tyson

JKe Paul has his hands wrapped in the locker room as his older brother, Logan, who also became rich and famous on YouTube, speaks seriously to him. “You have expanded your mind, your circle, your emotional intelligence, and your capabilities,” Logan tells Jake.

“From making crazy home movies to changing the entire landscape of martial arts. Everyone in this room knows how powerful you are and that’s why we’re all here, including Netflix. If I run for President one day, I would be honored to have you as my Vice President or perhaps as Secretary of Defense. You are in charge of the red button. The all-powerful nuclear bomb that also happens to be at the end of your right hand.”

At least Jake laughs softly when his brother mentions the absurdity of running for president in a brilliant new Netflix documentary. It leads the glut of content that Netflix hopes will entice millions of viewers to watch Jake Paul’s embarrassing fight against 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday night in Arlington.

In this sun-drenched corner of North Texas, a week after Donald Trump sealed his return to the White House, the hype is heating up. Jake and Logan, two Ohio brothers aged 27 and 29, are ardent Trump supporters and like their political hero, they spread a constant stream of nonsense knowing that some of it will eventually stick.

Jake can be heard proclaiming, “I’m a professional boxer who knocks people out” and “I could be the next Muhammad Ali.” His big brother shrugs: ‘Of course he’s delusional. We all are. That’s why we are where we are – until it becomes reality. That is the beauty of Jake Paul.”

Delusions of grandeur can become a kind of grim truth. Maybe with the world turned upside down, Logan Paul will one day become president. There’s a better chance of that happening than of Jake becoming a great boxer. He has applied himself with some seriousness and trained hard, but it is difficult to give any credence to Paul’s claims about boxing’s authenticity.

He has had eleven fights so far and only one of his opponents, Tommy Fury, was younger than him and a professional boxer. Paul lost that fight to an average scrapper whose boxing credentials rest on being Tyson Fury’s younger brother. Tommy Fury is also known as a contestant on Love Island and since beating Paul in February 2023, he has only had one fight: against KSI, another YouTuber.

But there is a more meaningful story about Paul. In the Netflix documentary he claims his father was violent towards him. Greg Paul denies all allegations, but he also implies that his boys should be grateful that he was so tough on them. Logan agrees that Jake was traumatized by his childhood, but together they started making YouTube videos as teenagers, which soon attracted millions of subscribers.

“We’re fucking media whores who create content on phones, edit it in iMovie, post it on the internet and get people talking,” Logan says. Jake, meanwhile, suggests: “When they created the word ‘influencer’ they were talking about us.”

At 18, Jake was rich enough to buy a house worth $7.4 million, but trading on his shame exhausted him. His brother and father were concerned that Jake would kill himself, but then, in August 2018, boxing apparently changed him. The Pauls launched YouTube boxing when they flew to England and Logan teamed up with his British rival, the high-profile KSI. Jake and Deji Olatunji, KSI’s brother, fought on the undercard.

Jake was beaten up in front of a packed and baying Manchester Arena. He says, “I felt like I was dying… and I fucking loved it… another element in me took over.” He won the fight and, tired of creating YouTube content and being hated, decided to become a professional fighter. “Boxing has reignited something in me,” he said. “It made me feel alive again.”

Jake Paul seems sincere in appreciating the self-esteem that boxing can instill and since then, while defeating a string of former UFC fighters, he has amassed a 10-1 record that looks decent on paper and weak in an actual ring. But he’s smart and grinned with delight when, after beating then 47-year-old MMA great Anderson Silva, he turned to the cameras to reveal that pay-per-view buys had reached 1.3 million against “$50 a pop”.

There are rumors that Paul could make $40 million against Tyson, which is ridiculous money for a rookie who has none of the talent or hard-fought ringcraft of world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. But instead of getting angry, it’s best to proceed with a small nod in recognition of Paul’s business savvy.

President Trump spews racism and misogyny. At his recent election rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump was preceded on stage by an aspiring joker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”

Still, Paul loves living in Puerto Rico and is also passionate about supporting women’s boxing. He promotes Amanda Serrano, a Puerto Rican woman born in New York, and her life is transformed. She earned peanuts for years and received little recognition, despite winning multiple weight world titles. She’s rumored to make around $8 million on Friday night, while her big rival Katie Taylor will reportedly make $6 million, as their rematch is the only fight that really matters on the Paul v Tyson card.

Jake Paul may be a limited fighter trying to feel better about himself while raking in obscene amounts of money, but he can be proud of that. He won’t be the next Muhammad Ali and hopefully not the Vice President of the United States, but he has created a legacy of lasting significance for women in boxing. We can hold on to that truth as the circus continues in Texas this week.