Jake Paul may not be the most popular person in the world but nobody can knock his business savvy.
While most fighters are struggling to pay their bills when turning professional, the 27-year-old Ohio native was raking in multi-millions for his first three fights in the sport. It was actually after he met former UFC chief financial officer Nakisa Bidarian — who ended up as his partner in Most Valuable Promotions — that he found out his true worth as a combat sports athlete.
“I saw a unique opportunity to create a direct-to-consumer relationship within fight sports,” Bidarian told The Hollywood Reporter about his plans for Paul after the pair first met.
Bidarian went onto produce the pay-per-view card that featured Paul’s next opponent Mike Tyson in an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. The event also featured Paul taking on former NBA star Nate Robinson on the undercard.
Appearing on the Tyson card was a calculated maneuver with Bidirian revealing that Paul ended up making $1 million for the fight — six times less than what he made for his professional debut against fellow social media influencer AnEsonGib.
The gamble paid off.
“I said, ‘Listen, this is what makes sense for this event, but I promise you, if you perform well, your next payday will be at least eight figures,’” Bidarian said. “We turned that into an over $10 million guarantee for his next fight [against Ben Askren].”
The hefty paydays were obviously nice, but Bidarian says that was just a very small piece to a much bigger puzzle that he was building after he started working with Paul.
Recognizing Paul’s appeal to a younger audience — an audience that had largely drifted away from boxing and started paying more attention to MMA through organizations like the UFC — Bidarian seized on the opening.
“Jake’s and my focus has been generating interest in Gen Z and Gen Alpha in the sport of boxing,” Bidarian said.. “And if you look at all the statistics, boxing is one of the fastest growing sports for Gen Alpha, by far. Jake’s had a large part to play in that. If you ask a lot of kids — age 6 to 16 — who’s the best boxer in the world, their answer is Jake Paul.”
As for his upcoming fight against Tyson on Nov. 15., Paul predicted viewership figures around 25 million thanks to the event airing on Netflix without a pay-per-view price attached with the streamer currently boasting over 270 million subscribers worldwide.
During a pre-fight press conference to promote the fight, Paul let it slip how much he’s making to face the former heavyweight boxing champion who turned 58 in June.
“I’m here to make 40 million dollars and knock out a legend,” Paul said in August.
Considering the gaudy figures just around those four fights, Paul’s next business venture doesn’t sound all that crazy.
While his focus remains boxing and continuing to build Most Valuable Promotions, Paul hopes to one day own an NFL team — just not his hometown Cleveland Browns.
“The Browns have a curse — so then I end up drifting to the [Kansas City] Chiefs, Paul said. “Travis Kelce, he’s from Cleveland, so I’m a fan.”
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