Jake Paul was extremely disappointed with the pay-per-view (PPV) numbers his fight with Anderson Silva brought in over Halloween weekend.
Jake Paul Breaks Down Low PPV Numbers
Over Halloween weekend, Paul stepped into the ring for his sixth professional boxing bout, taking on former UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva.
It was viewed as Paul’s toughest test to date, as Silva is a well respected striker in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA). In fact, many picked Silva to pick up the victory.
When it was all said and done, Paul walked away with the decision victory, scoring a big knockdown in the final round that likely solidified the contest for him.
Initial expectations suggest that the PPV numbers for the event did not do very well. Speaking on his brother Logan’s podcast, Impaulsive, Paul explained that a multitude of factors played into why the PPV didn’t do so well.
“Halloween, World Series, Sunday football,” Jake Paul said. “This is the worst time of 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 to early August where there’s no sports. And by the way, all my other fights were during COVID. This was during when nobody had anything to do or anything to watch.”
As for why Paul decided to go forward with the bout at this time of the year, “The Problem Child” admitted that he was simply tired of waiting around to fight, and wanted to scratch the itch.
“I had to fight this year. I just had to get it f*cking done bro, I’m so sick and tired of waiting around.”
Paul doesn’t know the final PPV numbers just yet, but one thing is for sure, they’re upsetting. The pre-buys were trending well for the event, but when Silva began talking about getting knocked out in training, the trend went the complete opposite direction.
“I don’t. I think it’ll probably go around like two to three hundred thousand. Which is kind of upsetting but – The pre-buys were going crazy.
“Up, up up, and on Wednesday when the news came up about Anderson saying that he got knocked out or whatever, and the fight was in jeopardy and all this press came out, the pre-buys tanked. All the way down.
“The general public sees that and is like ‘Oh it’s not happening’ Because how many pulled out? Oh I’ve seen Jake f*cking Paul can’t get an event together. This is done. It killed ticket sales. We were still selling tickets, that day, everything went to zero.”
