{"id":602299,"date":"2026-04-14T00:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602299\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:21:17","slug":"while-jake-pauls-jaw-recovers-hes-focusing-on-womens-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602299\/","title":{"rendered":"While Jake Paul\u2019s Jaw Recovers, He\u2019s Focusing on Women\u2019s Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since turning pro in 2020 \u00a0Jake Paul<\/a> has put on some of boxing\u2019s biggest events. He has battled former MMA stars like Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva. He has faced more traditional boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tommy Fury. More recently, Paul has appeared in mega events<\/a>, taking on Hall of Fame heavyweight Mike Tyson<\/a> and more recently, former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These days, Paul is focusing on the promotional side of his business. Since co-founding Most Valuable Promotions, Paul has invested heavily in women\u2019s boxing<\/a>. Recently, MVP inked multifight deals with ESPN and Sky Sports to broadcast MVP shows. On Friday, MVPW, as the series is branded, will put on its first show in the United States when unified 130-pound champion Alycia Baumgardner defends her titles Bo Mi Re Shin inside the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday, Paul discussed his new women\u2019s boxing series, the state of his own career, the rise of Zuffa Boxing and more in a wide-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity)<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated: Jake you are a promoter, an influencer, a boxer. Are we still an active boxer? Are we calling you that these days, Jake?<\/p>\n

Jake Paul: Yeah, I think so. I mean, technically not active right now, but I think a lot of fighters take periods of time off. So just letting the jaw recover<\/a> and we\u2019ll be back in action as soon as I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

SI: You spent the last year vacuuming up most of the top women\u2019s fighters there. By my count, you have six of the top 10 on ESPN\u2019s pound-for-pound list. Tell me: In your mind, what is the goal of building out this promotion? Five years from now, what do you hope that it looks like?<\/p>\n

JP: I like to make the comparison of the NBA to the WNBA, and I think the WNBA took a long time to really find traction and to find superstars like Caitlin Clark. And I think MVPW, our goal is to speed up that process on the women\u2019s side of things and women growing in sport in general. And really, it all started with Amanda Serrano and seeing her star power and seeing how she just needed a spotlight to tip the edge and become a mainstream name. And so really replicating that over and over and giving these women a platform, the best place to be, the best promotion, the best paydays, to get them the credit and the spotlight that they deserve.<\/p>\n

SI: So let me follow that thread then. The WNBA has 100% of the market share of women basketball players. Do you need to have 100% of the women\u2019s boxers under your umbrella to achieve what you want to achieve?<\/p>\n

JP: Definitely not. I think we\u2019re at, like you said, 60% out of the top 10 already, and I think Alycia Baumgardner is one of the future faces of the sport, if not the face of the sport. And so we are down to work with other promotions to make mega fights happen. I think there\u2019s big fights to make with Claressa Shields and Shadasia Green and all of these people. Alycia wants to fight her. And we\u2019re down to work. But I believe in the long run that all of these women will want to work with MVP. We have the best distribution for women\u2019s fighting and the biggest platforms and the biggest paydays and the most amount of followers to promote these women too. So I think eventually everyone will want to be under our umbrella, but it\u2019s not necessary for us to achieve our goal.<\/p>\n

SI: MVPW got off to a good start this past weekend with the Caroline Dubois\u2013Terri Harper fight. That was two names, good fight, title unification, exactly what I think you\u2019re probably looking for with these types of fights. This weekend, you\u2019ve got Alycia Baumgardner who is in a good fight. Shin\u2019s a good fighter. Gave Dubois a tough fight recently. What I was wondering when this card was announced was, why not Baumgardner against Amanda Serrano? You\u2019ve got Serrano with all those belts at 126, Baumgardner sitting there at 130. I have to imagine it crossed your mind to have those two mix it up. Why was that fight not among the first you were looking to make?<\/p>\n

JP: We want to make that fight happen, and personally, I think for me it\u2019s one of my favorite fights that I could see in women\u2019s boxing. And so I\u2019ve been pushing for it on my end of things, trust me. We have time though. We have time. That\u2019s the beauty of these things. And even just personally in my career, it\u2019s like all these names, all these people want to fight, we\u2019re going to get to it. Just everyone can be a little bit patient. But I believe that\u2019s going to happen at some point and it makes sense, and I think it\u2019s one of the biggest fights to make in boxing, period.<\/p>\n

SI: You get the impression from talking to Amanda that she still wants those kinds of fights?\u00a0<\/p>\n

JP: Yeah, I do, and I think she is a warrior and I think she\u2019s down to fight anyone. She\u2019s sparring guys in the gym every single day and is still an elite force. And I think her last fight was very impressive just in terms of output, and she clearly hasn\u2019t slowed down one bit. And Alycia\u2019s name is continuing to grow, so I think when the stars align it\u2019s going to make sense, and I believe Amanda will want to do it.<\/p>\n

SI: You said you didn’t need to consolidate all the women. Zuffa Boxing, at least nominally, is trying to become the umbrella for all of boxing. They want to become a UBO, which would allow them to create their own rankings, own title. All that goes into it. Is forming some kind of UBO a goal of yours? In other words, do you want to have the MVP belt for women to fight for in some of your cards?<\/p>\n

JP: I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the goal, to become a UBO, but I do see a world where there is an MVP belt and people respect it and understand it. And I don\u2019t think we want to essentially become a league at this point in time. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s even possible in the sport of boxing. We love working with other sanctioning bodies and I think they\u2019re important for the sport, and I don\u2019t think anyone has the power to completely flip boxing, or the money. It\u2019s not just power. It\u2019s a lot of money that it\u2019s going to take. And I don\u2019t think anyone in the sport has the ability to just completely own everything.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what\u2019s great about boxing. It\u2019s almost a democracy in that sense, and that\u2019s what keeps the fighters in control, keeps them important. And that\u2019s what I worry about with Zuffa, is if they do take a big share of the market, I think in the long run, fighters will look back and be upset that they contributed to that almost to their own demise, and eventually will be getting paid less and less if they\u2019re running a monopoly like they are with the UFC.<\/p>\n

SI: Alright, let me ask you lastly about the crown jewel of MVP, which is you. You are the biggest name in the MVP stable. You\u2019re coming off that fight against Anthony Joshua. You went six rounds with A.J. You get your jaw busted in that fight. Where\u2019s your head at right now about your career? Are you thinking about what your next fight is going to be? Are you thinking about what your next goal is?\u00a0<\/p>\n

JP: It\u2019s a good question, and not super thinking about the next opponent necessarily, and more thinking about what the overall goal is. And I think that is still to make the path to world champion and to fight people at my weight class. The one outlier is Francis Ngannou, but I\u2019m definitely a cruiserweight. I learned that against Anthony Joshua. And so fighting at cruiser weight, fighting where I feel the most comfortable, and I\u2019m 29, I think a lot of the champions and such in and around my weight class are 35, 36, 37. Obviously you have the young guy in Jai Opetaia, but I believe I can have a long career at cruiser weight and make the path to world champion.<\/p>\n

SI: Let\u2019s say that the winner of this Zurdo Ramirez\u2013David Benavidez fight on May 2 comes out afterwards, says, \u201cI\u2019ll fight Jake Paul.\u201d Do you feel like you need more fights to be ready for something like that?<\/p>\n

JP: Yeah, 100%. And that\u2019s something where fighting Anthony Joshua was a great experience. He has a great ring IQ, learning, being in there with someone much bigger, much more talented than me. He\u2019s an Olympic gold medalist. And so all of these experiences continue to make me better. And I don\u2019t know when or where I will make a run for the belt, but I think that is in the cards. I believe I would need more time to actually be able to compete against some of those guys, but that\u2019s part of the sport and that\u2019s part of the work that I need to put in now. And I think a lot of people still doubt it and doubt the seriousness of it, but if you would have said six years ago when I first turned pro that I would have ever made it into the top 15 cruiser weight rankings, people would have never believed it. So what can happen three, four, five years from now?<\/p>\n

SI: You mentioned Ngannou. Is it more likely we see you in with Ngannou in a boxing ring after Ngannou fights on this MVP card next month? Or will we see you win with a more traditional boxer as you head down that cruiser weight path?<\/p>\n

JP: We will see. I think at this point in my career when you are at the top and there\u2019s a lot of options, I think just lining up a lot of different options and then choosing what\u2019s best at that point in time. And it\u2019s a blessed position to be in in this sport, and there\u2019s only a few fighters who are in that position to be able to pick and choose and do whatever they want. And so I think at the point in time when I\u2019m cleared to spar and to really get back into it, me and my coaches and Nakisa [Bidarian] will make the right decision to figure out who I\u2019m going to fight.<\/p>\n

SI: If you could do the Anthony Joshua fight over again knowing how it played out, knowing the result of your broken jaw, would you do it again?<\/p>\n

Jake Paul: 100%, man. I had a great time and a great learning experience, and I think in the long run, all of it worked out for the positive and God\u2019s been guiding my journey. And so I would definitely do it again. I think it was very entertaining for the world and I think it was a good experience overall.<\/p>\n

More Boxing from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since turning pro in 2020 \u00a0Jake Paul has put on some of boxing\u2019s biggest events. He has battled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-602299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}