Jake Paul continued his undefeated rise in the sport of boxing with a win over 48-year-old MMA veteran, Anderson Silva. The controversial fighter had previously guessed that the fight could bring in a TV audience of around 700,000.
However, the Youtube-turned-fighter has now made a revised prediction – presumably backed up by some data this time – of between 200,000 and 300,000. Whilst not a bad night at the office for many fighters, especially those only six fights into a professional career, Paul could be happier.
He told the IMPAULSIVE podcast, presented by his brother Logan, that various factors affected both the live gate and pay-per-view sales.
“The pre-buys were going crazy. On Wednesday, when the news came out about Anderson saying he got knocked out [in sparring] or whatever, the fight was in jeopardy and all this press came out, the pre-buys tanked. The general public sees that and thinks it’s not happening. ‘Tommy pulled out, Hasim pulled out. Jake Paul can’t get an event together, this is done.’ It killed ticket sales.”
“I think it will probably go around 200,000 to 300,000 [pay-per-view buys], which is kind of upsetting. Halloween, World Series and Sunday football. This is the worst time of the year to fight but guess what, I had to fight. All of my fights from now on will be in the summer, there’s no sports. There’s like this perfect gap in July and early August.”
“All my other fights were during Covid when no one had anything to do and anything to watch. NBA, NFL, nothing was on. I had to fight this year, I just had to get it f***ing done. I was tired of waiting around.”
Despite calling out both MMA star Nate Diaz and boxing champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, continuous talk of a fight with Tommy Fury may point to that being next for the young star from Cleveland.