“That’s it! Mamma-mia, the Problem Child has proven to be a big problem for Nate Robinson,” screamed combat sports commentator Mauro Ranallo in 2020.
Just a few years ago, everyone laughed Jake Paul off for boxing — and beating — retired NBA star Nate Robinson. A lot of that has stopped on the heels of devastating knockouts of championship MMA fighters Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley.
In the midst of the biggest boxing training camp of his career, while he prepares for UFC legend Anderson Silva, Jake Paul sat down with The Post for an interview to discuss his future.
“When I came into the sport of boxing I was like man, there is no innovation here,” Paul told The Post. “There is no one making content, no one talking about boxing. Everything was stale. I only changed a couple of things and now I am a top-three boxer. With a couple tweaks and innovations I think we can propel ourselves pretty far in the sports world.”
From life as a YouTube sensation to a full-time boxer and an entrepreneur, the 25-year-old Paul is working 70-plus hour weeks and proving doubters wrong seemingly every day.
Jake Paul Getty Images
Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul. Getty ImagesLast week, his newest venture — Betr — launched. This week, they are giving away a Betr-themed Jeep. If you correctly guess the first play (run or pass) on this Thursday’s Bills vs. Rams game, one commenter on the Betr Instagram wins a new carprior to Thursday’s NFL opener between the Bills and Rams.
It is another way that Paul puts his little twist on sports betting and sports media.
He rhetorically said, “What would ESPN look like if it launched today? That’s what we want to do.
“We want short consumable content to show how the next generation of sports fans take in shows and news.”
Innovation is the motive. Between the micro sports betting side of the company, spearheaded by his co-founder Joey Levy, and the sports media side that Paul is pushing, the two have an opportunity to make a splash in sports.
Can he run the company and pursue his boxing career all at once? What if we could microbet on his boxing matches?
For now, that is unlikely to get approval from gaming commissions.
With Betr expected to launch real money wagering in Paul’s home state of Ohio sometime in 2023 and fighting Silva in October, these next few months will be the busiest of his life. Especially with Silva being, by far, his most difficult test to date.
And then there’s Nate Diaz, who is fighting on Saturday. and high up on Paul’s list of potential fights. Diaz is a a massive +900 betting underdog for his matchup with Khamzat Chimaev, and is on the final fight of his UFC contract.
When asked about the Diaz vs. Chimaev fight, Paul said, “It’s really funny what Dana White is doing there. He purposely made it the worst card because he wants to show people he [Nate] won’t sell.”
Jake Paul knocks out Tyron Woodley AFP via Getty ImagesHe continued, “He is trying to take away Diaz’s credibility as his second biggest star… There is no one on the undercard, it’s a fight where he will probably lose, and they are barely promoting it at all. There are barely any tickets sold at the [T-Mobile] Arena.”
Paul wants the Diaz fight; that much is clear.
“I mean, who wouldn’t want to beat the guy who beat Conor McGregor?” Paul said.
Perhaps those are his next three fights: Silva, Diaz, and McGregor. It is the ideal way to prove to the world that he is no fluke boxer.





