‘Do the math’ – Jake Paul proclaims himself the ‘face of the fight game’

Is this the new face of combat sports?

It wasn’t the prettiest contest, but Jake Paul notched the biggest win of his young boxing career this past weekend, when he won a split decision over former UFC champion Tyron Woodley. Ever the self-promoter, Paul has since proclaimed himself as the new face of boxing.

“I think I’m one of the faces of boxing, just because I’m doing it differently,” Paul said on the post-fight press conference. “There’s room for everyone to eat though. I don’t want to take everything. This is a sport where there’s hundreds of amazing fighters, and all I want to do is bring more eyeballs from a different audience.

“Everyone here saw the crowd tonight. This wasn’t your typical boxing audience. This was kids that were rowdy, lit, holding up signs saying subscribe to my YouTube channel. This is a completely different audience, and that’s what I want to bring to boxing. I’ma bring that over, they’ll be fans of boxing, and love all the other fighters. But I’m certainly one of the top three biggest draws, for sure. Top three, top five, I don’t know, let’s look at the numbers.”

Paul continued that sentiment soon after, as the YouTuber changed his social media bio to “the face of the fight game” and followed up with a tweet.

Paul and Woodley sold out the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday, and by all accounts from those in attendance, it was a much younger crowd than your typical combat sports event. Whether or not you agree with the “face of the fight game” label, it is true that Paul indeed is a big draw that brings in a different kind of audience.

Paul is now 4-0 as a professional, but he also did claim to be retired though. While many — even his own team — expect him to return to the ring, it will be interesting to see where the polarizing figure goes from here.