Jake Paul says his latest Pay Per View disaster is down to many reasons after his victory over Anderson Silva on Saturday night.
Paul aired many scenarios that contributed to a second PPV bomb in succession but not because he didn’t face a professional boxer for the sixth time.
By his own admission, speaking with his WWE star brother Logan on ‘Impaulsive,’ Jake Paul predicted sales of 200 to 300,000 for the Silva event.
Those are not confirmed and come in or around Paul’s previous effort against Tyron Woodley. The rematch sold just 65,000; on that occasion, Paul predicted far more sales.
Therefore, it’s conceivable that Paul vs Silva did similar to Woodley or somewhere around that ballpark.
50 million Jake Paul followers and 200k PPV buys
But whatever way you look at it, the fight was a complete car wreck as Paul put pressure on himself to make 700,000 buys.
Due to his 30 million followers on social media alone and another 20 million on YouTube, Showtime would expect a lot more clout for their layout.
Selling a mere 200,00 or less from that kind of fanbase [50 million] is a total failure. There’s no other way to dice it.
How long Showtime put up with the run of grenades is now up to executives to decide.
Paul attempted to shed light on why his second Pay Per View in a row hit the skids by blaming everything else bar his choice to battle a nearly 50-year-old former MMA star.
“On Wednesday, when the news came out about Anderson saying he got knocked out [in sparring] or whatever, the fight was in jeopardy. All this press came out, the pre-buys tanked,” Paul told Logan Paul.
“The general public sees that and thinks it’s not happening. Tommy [Fury] pulled out. Hasim [Rahman] pulled out. ‘Jake Paul can’t get an event together. This is done.
“It killed ticket sales. We were still selling tickets, but that day everything went to zero. It was so annoying.
“I think it will probably go around 200,000 – 300,000, which is kind of upsetting.”
Halloween, baseball, and NFL to blame
On what the problem was, Paul added: “Halloween, World Series, and Sunday football.
“This is the worst time of the year to fight, but guess what? I had to fight.”
Paul then stated he now only intends to fight during a few months of the year, which is good news for his detractors.
“All of my fights from now on will be in the summer. There are no sports,” he outlined. “There’s like this perfect gap in July and early August when there are no sports.
“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. But I just had to get it done. I was tired of waiting around.”
Jake Paul opponent step up
Holding ambitions of one day becoming a world champion in the sport, Paul will have to start thinking about trading blows with solid opponents or a real boxer.
It’s the only way to fend off the haters, doubters, and fact-checkers who dissect his poor fighter record.
Despite the negativity, coach BJ Flores thinks Paul is always getting better.
“It’s an unbelievable amount of progress that he’s had over the last 12 to 18 months,” said Flores.
“It’s really impossible for anybody really to know how good Jake is. I understand how he’s doing right now because he’s gotten so much better since last year that it’s impossible to handicap that.
“It’s impossible for any experts to know except those that are in camp with him. It’s been fun to watch.”
How long will Showtime wait?
Showtime will grow impatient with the kind of bout on offer at the Desert Diamond Arena. Paul only managed to squeak a unanimous decision via a debatable right hand flooring Silva in the final round.
Without that, Paul was on course to lose the fight.
Reports that Nate Diaz, ringside for the event and causing havoc, is next won’t help Paul’s cause. He has to step it up, especially if the World Boxing Council hands him a ranking at the forthcoming 60th Convention.
Though still in the celebrity ballpark, Tommy Fury would be a step in the right direction. That would be his first fight to becoming any version of a recognized boxer.
If that doesn’t happen, the Disney kid actor may fade into boxing obscurity in the fastest career blowout ever seen in the sport.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil Jay has over ten years of boxing news experience. Furthermore, follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
