Jake Paul’s critically-acclaimed clash with ex-UFC star Nate Diaz was a smashing success on multiple levels for the social media sensation.
On August 5, ‘The Problem Child’ scored his seventh career victory, going toe-to-toe with the ‘Stockton Samurai’ for 10 entertaining rounds. Once it was all said and done, Paul saw his hand raised via a unanimous decision, but the success didn’t stop there. As it turns out, Paul vs. Diaz was a massive win for both men on the business side of things.
Speaking about the contest on a recent episode of his BS w/ Jake Paul podcast, ‘The Problem Child’ revealed that his latest pay-per-view offering did more than half a million buys in the United States and generated record-breaking numbers at the gate.
“Very happy with the fight. An amazing event. So much has come out of it,” Paul said. “So much love and support. Good things. Everyone on the business side, we absolutely crushed it. It’s looking like 500,000+ buys. “The biggest gate, and that’s U.S. pay-per-views. It means more because it costs more in the U.S. So a massive number, massive success. There’s a statistic that shows the Google searches from that night. We were the number one most searched Google trend by like 10x. Trended everywhere. Biggest gate. Biggest ticket sales. Biggest sponsorship.”
Paul was also happy with his performance, particularly the way he bounced back following his first career loss against Tommy Fury in February.
“Happy with my performance,” Paul continued. “The new team absolutely crushed it and having so much confidence moving forward and I truly showed myself what I’m capable of coming back from a loss on the biggest stage and just going 10 rounds with the dog. Walking the dog. Putting him on a leash, and yeah, I’m hungrier than ever.”
Jake Paul says his fight with Nate Diaz is looking like it did 500K+ U.S. PPV buys.#PaulDiaz https://t.co/VGnuMpsqyQ pic.twitter.com/0u0pqMguPh
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 17, 2023
After going non-stop for the last eight months, Paul is ready to take a little time off to relax and enjoy his success on both the competitive and the business side of things. But ‘The Problem Child’ wouldn’t be where he is if he didn’t have the desire to keep moving forward.
Discussing what could come next, Jake Paul believes a fight with another professional boxer could be in the cards, but ‘The Problem Child’ implored fight fans to remain patient with him as there are only so many fights he can produce for himself.
“I want professional boxers. It’s only been three and a half years. You can only make a certain amount of fights happen and the plan was always to fight Nate Diaz after Tommy Fury win, lose, or draw. People always think there’s this ducking of professional boxers. It’s simply time and creating it,” Paul said.
“I think the next fight could potentially be a professional boxer, but guys, please. One ask. Take it easy on me. I’m just getting f*cking started. I’m 26 years old. It’s eight fights and I can only make so much f*cking happen and there’s only so much I can do and I have goals. Originally, all this started to squash beefs. I started boxing because of sh*t talk and to beat people up who were sh*t talking. And so I had to squash the beef with Nate Diaz while he was out of his UFC contract.”
Jake Paul Unimpressed by KSI’s Pay-Per-View Numbers
One fight Paul would undoubtedly love to book is a long-teased clash with fellow social media star, KSI. The two men have been at odds with one another for quite some time, making their showdown inside the squared circle feel inevitable. Speaking about KSI and the Brit’s ability to draw viewership to his UK-based fights, Paul was less than complimentary, saying:
“He doesn’t sell good pay-per-views. If you look at the views of all of his last three fights, the re-uploads of them, combined it’s less than my last fight because people don’t really care. He’s a big star in the UK, but doesn’t move anything in the U.S. He does not actually sell a lot of pay-per-views.”
On October 14, KSI is scheduled to headline a Misfits boxing event in Manchester against the only man to hand Jake Paul a loss inside the squared circle, Tommy Fury.
“I believe there’s beef between us still to settle. I want both fighters. Win, lose, or draw, either one of them. I want to fight KSI. I want to fight Tommy Fury and I think it needs to happen for the culture.”
Paul has also been pushing hard for a rematch with Nate Diaz to take place inside the PFL Smart Cage in 2024. Needless to say, ‘The Problem Child’ definitely has a lot of options available for his next move in the world of combat sports.
Who would you like to see Jake Paul square off with next?
