Jake Paul is disappointed with the results of his most recent fight.
Though Paul defeated MMA legend and former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva this past Saturday, he doesn’t expect the pay-per-view numbers to reflect the significance of the moment for a variety of reasons.
Speaking to his brother Logan on the Impaulsive podcast, Paul couldn’t say for certain what the PPV buys for the Showtime event will be, but it’s unlikely to be a blockbuster.
“I think it’ll be around 2-300,000, which is kind of disappointing,” Paul predicted.
Everything was looking up for the Silva fight, the YouTuber’s first boxing match since December, according to Paul. Paul was coming off an incredible knockout win over Tyron Woodley in a rematch earlier this year, but bouts with rival Tommy Fury and former sparring partner Hasim Rahman Jr. fell through earlier this year, leading to the booking against Silva.
Unfortunately for Silva, word spread that he was “knocked out” in a sparring session prior to the fight, though the 47-year-old later stated that he “misspoke” and was never knocked out in sparring.
However, Paul believes that the damage was done once the initial comments were made public.
“The pre-buys on pay-per-view purchases were going crazy,” Paul said. “Up, up, and up.” And on Wednesday, when the news broke that Anderson had been knocked out or whatever and that the fight was in jeopardy, pre-purchases plummeted. “All the way to the bottom.”
“The general public sees that and thinks, ‘Oh, that’s not happening,'” he went on. “Tommy and Hasim both pulled out. ‘Jake f Paul can’t organise an event. This is completed.’ It was disastrous for ticket sales. That day, we were still selling tickets, but everything went to zero.”
When Logan mentioned that there didn’t seem to be much post-fight buzz about his brother’s big win, Paul agreed wholeheartedly. He mentioned that there were numerous other factors to consider, and that he will now aim to fight during the summer, when there may be less sports competition.
“It’s strange,” Paul commented. “The World Series, Halloween, and Sunday football.” This is the worst time of year to fight, but I had no choice. All of my fights from now on will be in the summer, when there will be no sports. There’s this perfect gap in July/early August where there are no sports. By the way, all of my other fights took place during COVID.
With the win, Paul improved to 6-0 and now has a number of options ahead of him, including another attempt to book Fury or a much-discussed meeting with former UFC star and current free agent Nate Diaz. One of the reasons Paul was eager to return to the ring was the growing list of potential opponents, even though he knew they might not be able to maximise viewership.
“This year, I had to fight,” Paul explained. “I just had to f finish it.” “I’m sick and tired of waiting.”
Check out the highlights from Paul’s Impaulsive appearance here:
Jake Paul says he thinks #PaulSilva did around 200K-300K buys.pic.twitter.com/3DdKk0nEzv
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) November 2, 2022
