Fights that can sell a million pay-per-views are rare indeed, so it’s not surprising that Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza is interested in a Jake Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather match-up.
While the Jake Paul business is definitely a good business to be in, Jake’s big brother Logan still holds the record for most pay-per-views sold by a Paul in a main event. His bout against Floyd Mayweather broke the million PPVs sold threshold at a cool $49.95 per unit.
Showtime Sports partnered with Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather to make that magic happen, so of course they’d love to see if Jake Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather would perform at the same level. Executive Stephen Espinoza confirmed his interest when asked by MMA Fighting leading up to Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva.
“Absolutely [we’d be interested],” Espinoza said. “If that’s something that Floyd becomes interested in, and he’s got room in his very busy schedule of exhibitions worldwide to do that, I think that has tremendous potential. Maybe even the potential to be bigger than Floyd and Logan, given what Jake has done as a professional boxer in the meantime.”
“Look, I firmly believe — as much as I wish this were not true — we’re not going to see or at least I’m not going to see another fighter like Floyd Mayweather in my lifetime. He’s truly a once a generation. I mean. the combination of his marketing ability and his skill set and everything that came along with him is just once in a lifetime type of fighter. Whenever he has a business endeavor and he picks up the phone and says ‘Hey, are you interested?,’ ninety-nine percent of the time our answer is yes.”
Considering that Espinoza and Showtime Sports have partnered with Jake Paul for his past three fights, it’s unsurprising that he’s all-in on this new style of boxing sideshow, which often pits social media influencers against pro athletes from other sports.
“I’m as much of a boxing purist as anyone,” Espinoza claimed. “And that is always going to be near and dear to my heart. But at a certain point you’ve got to have fun and lean into the spectacle every once in a while. It is a very serious sport. It is a risky sport for the participants but there also is an omen of spectacle that is present in combat sports and boxing in particular that doesn’t exist anywhere else in sports. The more we lean into it while still respecting the sport itself, the bigger and more enjoyable the events are.”
Unfortunately for Espinoza, they might have a hard time convincing Floyd to fight Jake. There’s still a lawsuit brewing over Mayweather’s non-payment to Logan Paul from their fight in June 2021. And then there’s the fact that “Money” won’t compete outside of an exhibition format so his nice round 50-0 record remains intact.
Lastly, it seems like Mayweather learned his lesson about boxing 200+ pound opponents after facing Logan. So Stephen shouldn’t get his hopes up too high for Jake vs. Floyd. Floyd vs. Nate, on the other hand….