I like to be a villain

Jake and Logan Paul are Yetuubers with millions of subscribers. They suddenly decided to become professional fighters - and now they win the UFC champions

American Utuub bloggers Jake and Logan Paul storm a professional box. Logan had already fought with the main boxer of our time Floyd Mayweather, and Jake defeated the former UFC champion Tyron Woodley. Their battles have already become one of the most discussed events in sports. At the request of Medusa about the Brothers Paul, a sports journalist, author of the blog about martial arts, Alexei Alekhin, tells.

What are these gender brothers?

Logan Paul is 26 years old, Jake - two years younger. Outwardly, the brothers are very similar. But the elder is slightly higher, and the younger has much more tattoos.

The brothers grew up in Ohio and began to record a video about their life when they were still children. Now the three UTUB channels of Logan have a total of more than 31 million subscribers, more than 20 million in Instagram . Jake has a little more modest: about 20.5 million on Yetube and more than 17 million on Instagram. In addition to the video in the style of a kind of reality show, the brothers record music, play cinema and series.

Periodically both fall into scandals. For example, one of the most famous videos with the participation of Logan isa video from the Japanese “suicide forest” Aokighara, in which he laughs next to the body of a man who has committed suicide. Jake was accused of looting , financial fraud and even sexual violence.

How did they get into boxing? And why?

At school, both brothers were engaged in struggle, and Logan was also American football. Boxing in their life appeared in 2018, when the brothers called the British blogger and singer KSI (Podzhida Olatongzhi) to the battle. This is a fairly common practice for Western bloggers, somewhat reminiscent of the Pop Mma phenomenon in Russia.

Logan and KSI immediately agreed on two fights. The first took place in August 2018 in the UK and gathered more than 22 thousand spectators (2.25 million people watched it live). Bloggers boxed in protective helmets, the battle ended in a draw. Jake fought that evening on the “warm -up” by Logan and defeated the grandfather - the younger brother of KSI.

Revenge KSI and Logan was held in November 2019 in Los Angeles. It was he who became the debut for Logan in professional boxing - that is, there were no more helmets on the fighters. Each of the bloggers received a fee of 900 thousand dollars - this is more than many boxers and fighters of MMA of the champion level receive. The battle ended in the victory of KSI: although Paul sent his opponent to a knockdown, he lost an advantage due to points taken for prohibited attacks on the back of the head.

Three months later, Jake made his debut in Profi. In the first round, he knocked out another YouTuber - Ali Esson Gib, also from the KSI team.

The fact that the brothers came to boxing in many ways was a combination of circumstances. However, the fact that they remained in it is already a strategy. Journalist Dotun Akinnai prepared for ESPN a large profile about the youngest field and came to the conclusion that, due to boxing, Jake wants to stop being a blogger and become “just a celebrity”. In his opinion, this will free him from the need to constantly release new content to maintain a high level of income.

And with whom are the brothers fight?

Analysts consider Jake Paul a more talented boxer. And he methodically and systematically turns himself into a professional fighter. For example, now Paul even lives with his coach so that he can better control him. Under his supervision, Paul stopped arranging parties and drinking alcohol, trains twice a day and observes a recharge regime at 23:00.

Jake has a strong team and he trains with good boxers, but it is no less important that he is selected with convenient opponents with recognizable names - athletes on the decline, without experience in boxing, much older and less in dimensions. Over the past year, Jake won three victories - and all over professional athletes. In November 2020, he knocked out the ex-basketball player of NBA Nate Robinson. This April, in a couple of minutes, he dealt with the former UFC fighter Ben Askren, and in August he won the points of the ex-UFC champion of Tyrone Woodley.

However, Jake’s path in boxing is no exception. It is very similar to a classic scheme of how the majority of young pros “lead”. In order for the fighter to gain confidence and adapt to real battles, he is given obviously weaker opponents. If you delve into the track records of many champions, we can find that at the beginning of their careers they went to the ring with bouncers, builders, handwinds and alcoholics. After that, for the fighter to develop, his rivals become stronger.

At the same time, now the battles of the floor are gaining a bunch of views (from 500 thousand to more than a million ) - and it should be borne in mind that these are not free streams on Utube, but paid broadcasts. For example, the Woodley fight was broadcast by the ShowTime channel, one of the main platforms for modern boxing. He concluded a contract with Jake for several fights at once.

These battles are beneficial not only to Jake, but also to his opponents. For example, Ascrain for a battle with Paul earned 500 thousand dollars, the largest fee in his career. For the battle, both participants received two million dollars of a guaranteed fee. This is four times more than Woodley's fee for the champion fight in the UFC.

It is not surprising that immediately after the defeat, Woodley requested a revenge, potentially even more cash register. Moreover, Tyrone even had to fill a tattoo with the inscription “I Love Jake Paul” (without this, Jake flatly refused a revenge). She flaunts on Woodley's middle finger .

“It is unlikely that the floor will become the world champion, but with proper work it can do something,” said Ivichuk, coach of the Baszer Boxer, Meduza, and the Basza Baser. - Pretty well trained, with his style, confidently holds in the ring. I liked him with Woodley, there are eggs. But another question is that Woodley did nothing. It will be interesting to look at Jake with a good boxer, and not with the tired MMA fighters. ”

However, so far the main targets of Jake are the guys from mixed martial arts. And there is logic in this. After two years (albeit the most diligent) training, it is unrealistic to beat the top boxer. It’s easier to deal with the MMA fighter, because even for a good “drummer” from mixed martial arts, the exit from the cage to the ring is a way out of the comfort zone. In boxing, everything differs - the distance of attack, gloves, duration and number of rounds.

The louder than others Jake calls the ex-UFC champion in two weight categories of Conor McGregor: “How are you, Irish bitch? My team sent you an offer for $ 50 million in cash. ”

And this is absolutely logical: Conor is still the most box office fighter of the UFC, despite the four defeats in the last five fights. Moreover, he is ten centimeters below the floor, nine years older, and won his titles in weight categories up to 65.8 and 70.3 kilograms - Jake weighs about 86 during the battle.

So far, the younger sex has already managed to become a constant hero of the news about the battles - the troll, who is massively hated by fans and many fighters. Jake plays out one of the most traditional images in the world of professional battles - a impudent anti -hero who lifts everyone and gets high from self -hatred. For example, when Jake recently came as a spectator for the next UFC tournament, the fans massively chanted “Fuck Jake Paul!”. “I like to be a villain,” the floor himself said . - [Others] guys fight in a cage, trying to kill each other, and people shout to me? This shows what influence I have in this sport. ”

In addition, Jake greatly uses modern boxing problems. It is difficult for ordinary viewers to navigate in the number of weight categories (now recognized by 18 ) and titles (in each weight there are at least four champion belts in each weight). The battles who want to see the audience have to wait several years, because the strongest boxers often “lead” different promoters who are in no hurry to compromise with each other. The public lacks large, understandable and large -scale events. At the same time, Jake (like his older brother) does what many promoters do not succeed - brings a young audience to boxing.

Judging by the abilities and attitude to business, Jake Paul will linger in boxing longer than his brother. However, so far it was Logan who received the most high -profile battle (apparently, simply because he has more subscribers).

In June 2021, Logan fought with 44-year-old Floyd Mayweather-one of the greatest boxers in history and the ex-champion of the world in five weight categories. There were no judges, but it was possible to lose or win only by knockout, which did not happen. Mayweather looked better in most rounds against the opponent of 16 kg heavier and 18 years younger, but for the first time in his career looked aged. The battle was boring, but brought Logan more than $ 20 million (Floyd received even more). More thana million people bought a fight broadcast.

In many ways, such a financial result was facilitated by a competent PR campaign before the battle-right at a press conference before the fight, Jake threw a cap from Floyd and tried to escape. Mayweather and barn-guards rudely returned the headdress. The video of the conflict became viral, and the blogger began selling a mercha with the inscription "Gotcha Hat", made the same tattoo and began to cooperate with the Gotcha brand.

And what will happen next?

It is known that for himself Jake decided: he will box for five years - that is, there are about three more. Logan is not going to leave yet. Apparently, more and more serious opponents await them - and more monetary fights. They do not exclude the opportunity to fight among themselves. It is difficult to imagine how much this fight can bring to the brothers.

Alexey Alekhin