Sports

20 Reasons Jake Paul Is Making A Joke Out Of Combat Sports

Darren - December 17, 2020

Sports

20 Reasons Jake Paul Is Making A Joke Out Of Combat Sports

Darren - December 17, 2020

Combat sports are no longer what they were. The times of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Anderson Silva, and Georges St-Pierre are over. These legendary fighters presided over eras where fans loved them for their magnificent fighting abilities. Yet now, a joke of a situation has emerged with the arrival of YouTube ‘personalities’ like Jake Paul.

Paul and his older brother Logan are just two of several internet personalities to enter the sacred space of combat sports. This has angered many fans and fighters, who feel that they are disrespecting everything that worked for and love. However, Tyson claimed that they saved the sport. Is he right? We don’t think so. So today, we looked at 20 reasons that caused combat sports to devolve into a joke in the ‘Jake Paul Era.’ Check out the list below via Deadspin.

20. Fans Fall for it

One of the worst aspects of this nonsense direction is that fans actually believe that the Paul brothers have a chance against elite combat sports athletes. A quick look at any comments section on any social media post about Logan Paul’s upcoming exhibition against Floyd Mayweather will show the ridiculous nature of this. In short, they say that because he’s bigger he can knock Mayweather, arguably the best defensive boxer of all-time, out.

The reality is that Mayweather will dissect him and could seriously hurt him. The same goes for Jake Paul, who consistently calls out Conor McGregor. However, the same demographic of fans believe that he has a puncher’s chance against the former two-weight UFC champion. This is not even a joke it’s so unfunny. UFC President Dana White threatened to send two-weight women’s champ Amanda Nunes after him because there are levels to combat sports.

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19. Cringeworthy Faceoffs

The contrived nature of all this nonsense is another serious issue. Let’s step back for a moment and compare the UFC to the WWE. One is a competitive sports promotion while the other is a sports entertainment organization. People know where to go if they want to watch real martial arts or the dramatic theatre of professional wrestling. However, the Paul brothers are blending the two formats together and reducing the impact of both.

Anybody who put themselves through KSI and Logan’s pre-fight press conferences or Jake’s interactions with AnEnsonGib should probably be put on a watchlist. They’re literally pulling out all of the moves from the Conor McGregor playbook, but without the charisma or sincerity of the Irishman. How anybody buys this as reality is beyond any kind of joke because it’s embarrassing for the sport.

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18. Champions Deserve Exposure

The recent YouTuber boxing trend is also deflecting attention away from those combat sports athletes who should receive it. Teofimo Lopez should be a superstar after beating Vitaly Lomachenko and becoming the unified lightweight champion of the world. Furthermore, how many casual fans would recognize the pound-for-pound number one Terence Crawford or an exciting youngster Shakur Stevenson if they walked down the street?

One of the problems is that the YouTubers promote themselves better than the actual boxing promoters. Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub acknowledged this and it’s the reason why so many boxing promoters are jumping on the money train. The future may see more combat sports athletes like Ryan Garcia and Sean O’Malley attempt to carve out a strong social media following instead of relying on their promotions.

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17. Annoying Media

The way the media exploits the Paul brothers and reports on their every action and engagement is a disgrace. By feeding the monster, they enhance their marketability and the amount of attention they receive. They should allow the YouTubers to exist in their own bubble and instead report on real combat sports athletes. But they won’t because they just want to generate a buzz and feed off the drama.

What hope do serious future boxers have if they can’t trust their own promoters or the media to represent them properly? Jake Paul throwing balloons at Bellator’s Dillon Danis shouldn’t be a new story because nobody should have enabled him to go that far. However, as long as he receives the attention, he will continue to irritate every serious combat sports fan and fighter who is watching this in despair.

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16. Irresponsible Commissions

Every U.S. state has its own sports commission to regulate professional events and ensure athlete safety. However, another result of the Jake Paul era is that they are failing people. There is no way that the California Athletic Commission should have sanctioned Nate Robinson to fight as a pro. He fought Jake Paul in 10-ounce gloves with no headgear and the commission didn’t see anything wrong with this.

However, they refused to sanction Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. to fight to an official result. Where are their priorities? Robinson never even had an amateur fight and it looked like he learned his skills from playing Street Fighter on a dusty Sega Genesis. Allowing him to fight professionally on a global card without any combat sports experience is a dereliction of duty by the commission.

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15. Bad Attitudes

A core issue is a fact that this is changing casual fans’ expectations of what combat sports entail. The boorish behavior of these personalities is not representative of the majority of fighters. However, they are making disrespect a common practice. While trash talk and athlete feuds are entertaining, it isn’t a requirement for every fight. In fact, it becomes tiring after a while.

In the unwritten trash talk rule book, it clearly says don’t mention your opponent’s family. But Jake Paul trolled Conor McGregor’s wife Dee Devlin and also went after Dillon Danis’s girlfriend Savannah Montano. It’s obviously wrong to involve such people, but Paul has no class at all. Nate Diaz warned him not to joke about things like this because he’ll experience pain.

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14. Shortsighted Perspective

Bob Arum is 93 years old, so it’s fair to say that the veteran promoter probably doesn’t care much about the future. Meanwhile, Eddie Hearn would sell his grandmother if he could find a high enough bidder. If insurance wasn’t mandatory, Dana White would surely treat his fighters like injured racehorses. They deal with the YouTube brigade because they share a common interest and that, of course, is money.

It may seem like a joke but it’s not. They’re more than happy to exploit the here and now because they aren’t the ones who have to care about the future. As long as they have money in the bank, then they’re happy. Their whole enterprise comes from making human beings damage each other for their own financial gain. Meanwhile, true fighters need to worry about their long-term health and the progression of sport.

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13. Pay Structures Exposed

The rise of the ‘Jake Paul Era’ has also exposed how desperate fighters are for a payday. Hype and popularity are what matter these days, not achievements. The majority of fighters realize this and want to maximize their earnings with a super fight against somebody with a massive name or a lucrative match-up with one of these clowns. Now they scrabble like pigeons for birdseed to get the attention of YouTube stars.

It’s sad that they are in this situation but that is the status quo. The majority of boxers face financial difficulties every year while Dana White historically underpays most of his UFC fighters. Furthermore, the global health crisis has only enhanced everybody’s desire for a quick buck. The YouTube brigade is able to make millions of dollars simply by being themselves. That’s attractive to real fighters.

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12. More Difficult to Make it

The path to the top was already so difficult for boxers and MMA fighters. Many of them start in the amateur ranks where they set themselves on a path to the Olympics. Then they slowly and carefully attempt to amass a longest winning streak. In the case of boxers, a single loss can cost them any hope of a title shot. Champions often retire after losing their belt because it’s so difficult to get back on top.

But now Logan Paul, with a professional record of 0-1, will fight the 50-0 Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition match. They are able to bypass the rules of the sport where records and achievements don’t matter. The only scale is the number of pay-per-views they will bring to the table. Don’t be surprised if Paul vs. Mayweather is record-breaking. It’s too sad to even joke about.

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11. Dedicated Pros Suffer

This YouTube anarchy is a joke because it provides another obstacle in the path of dedicated athletes who devote their lives to their sports. It must be incredibly disheartening to realize that a significant amount of people prefer to watch some loudmouths with no experience duke it out instead of elite sports stars. But this is the reality that many up-and-coming boxers face.

It’s going to be even more difficult for them to enter the mainstream than before. The likes of Jake Paul and his big brother have gatecrashed the party because they see that it is vulnerable. True boxing fans need to understand that they are the minority in this situation and may no longer be the real target audience. At the end of the day, money talks and they bring a lot of it. Unfortunately, this may not be reversible.

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10. Disillusioned Fans

Most articles about the Paul brothers in combat sports have comments describing how fans don’t care. In fact, many of them are showing symptoms of alienation from the sport. The only time most MMA or boxing fans want to see them fight is if they suffer a brutal beating at the hands of a female fighter. That would serve as a nice warning to them not to joke around as combat athletes.

But the danger is that increasing numbers of true boxing fans will turn away from the sport. If they aren’t happy with the direction it takes, then they will simply lose interest. This is dangerous because if the YouTubers also lose interest then boxing will earn even less money than before. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of athletes will be the ones who inevitably suffer from this.

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9. Greedy Promoters

Boxing promoters are some of the most self-indulgent people on the planet. But they’ve shown even more hypocrisy in this situation. When Logan Paul announced that he would fight KSI, Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn condemned it. Then he slated the rematch yet helped promote Jake Paul’s clash with Nate Robinson. It’s one of the most dramatic turnarounds since Italy changed sides in World War One.

Tyson went as far as to say that Jake Paul saved boxing. This is about as true as saying that Dana White has an afro. It’s fine to joke about it but that doesn’t make it true. In fact, he has instigated the transformation of the industry from competitive sport to pantomime. It would be hilarious if the YouTubers took control of their own destinies and left the promoters to scrabble. Then the joke would be on Arum, Hearn, and company.

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8. Watered-Down Product

In recent times boxing has seen subscription models enter the picture. DAZN became the most famous after it made Canelo Alvarez the highest-paid athlete in the world. But then their contract broke down in an embarrassing fashion. However, subscribers were able to watch the Paul brothers fight on the platform. Is this really what paying boxing fans want to receive for their buck?

That seems unlikely. If a combat sports aficionado really cares about the sport enough that they’re willing to pay for DAZN’s dodgy service, watching YouTube stars isn’t what they want. It’s a joke to shove this down boxing fans’ throats. They will be pay to watch a pair of legends like Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. scrap it out for the sake of nostalgia, but those fans won’t tune in for just YouTubers.

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7. Diminished Glory

Unless there is a dramatic turnaround, the status of boxing titles will continue to diminish. One of the many criticisms of the sport is that there are too many belts. Some sanctioning organizations. like the WBC, even have multiple titles in the same weight class. This results in obscure champions nobody has ever heard of and mandatory title fights that no one wants to watch.

Sadly, boxing is on course to back itself into a corner where the money is the overriding factor, not the glory of winning a belt. Of course, this has always been the case but at least it was the champions who dictated terms, not these YouTube viruses. Floyd Mayweather is laughing all the way to the bank because he’s smart enough to exploit both sides of the coin. Nobody can blame him for that but it’s sad it has reached this stage.

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6. Annoying Personalities

There is clearly a generation gap when it comes to these internet personalities because people above the age of 25 just can’t understand what the appeal is. Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman said that he has never seen a more punchable face than Jake Paul’s. Many people would agree with this. The only reason that they will pay to watch him fight a professional athlete is in the hope that he suffers total annihilation.

Everything about Logan and Jake Paul is annoying. From their frat boy bro style to their blatant attempts to rip off real athletes, it’s a miracle that people idolize them. Call us haters, but it’s true. Meanwhile, the likes of AnEnsonGib and KSI add fuel to the fire. All people can hope is that this is just a passing phase and that people will see these imposters for what they really are.

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5. Fighters Can’t Say No

Unfortunately, most fighters are in a position where they can’t afford to say no to fighting on these cards. Boxing is basically a pyramid system. A tiny minority of athletes at the top earn millions of dollars while a majority struggles to make ends meet. The problem is that by fighting on YouTuber cards, these boxers inadvertently validate them.

Furthermore, they don’t receive any major benefits from this. The public exposure is fleeting because casual viewers aren’t that invested in their fights unless they provide a viral knockout moment. Boxing is an increasingly obscure sport and it’s on the brink of transforming into something different. Only time will tell whether or not they can reclaim the sport for themselves.

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4. Pay-Per-View Robbery

Young Youtube fans with no knowledge of combat sports fork out money for these events. It’s an obscene waste of money for the product they receive. Also, it’s bizarre because the likes of Jake Paul apparently have money to burn. If he can write Conor McGregor a check for $50 million why does he need to fight? Brain cells are irreplaceable but they don’t seem to care about this.

It’s not like they’re even using the money as a force of good. Obviously, they’re under no obligation to give to charity, but they’re literally milking their public platform without earning it. At least Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. used their exhibition as a force for good because they donated to good causes. But Logan Paul is the type of guy who laughs while filming dead bodies, so it shouldn’t be that surprising.

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3. No Long-Term Impact

One of the myths surrounding these events is that it brings eyes to the sport. That’s fine for one-off events, but it has no long-term positive impact on the sport. The people who flock to watch the Paul brothers fight will literally watch them do anything. In short, if a Paul brother isn’t fighting, then they aren’t watching. Boxing promoters will try and say otherwise, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Regular boxers won’t gain anything from this. Devin Haney and Billy Joe Saunders didn’t suddenly receive thousands of new social media followers after featuring on Paul Brothers’ undercards. It’s all about short-term gain for the people running the sport and those looking to exploit it. This may seem cynical but it’s the truth, and anybody who says otherwise is either delusional or a liar.

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2. The Fights Are Terrible

Make no mistake, these fights are horrendous. There was some novelty to watching Paul fight KSI in the Manchester Arena because it felt fresh. But no serious combat sports fan wants to see this become the norm. Imagine replacing the NFL with high school football for a season because the drop-off in quality would be similar. Sloppy and unskilled, it’s a joke to compare them to professionals.

That’s why celebrities should be careful when they call out a real fighter. The way Anthony Joshua recently outclassed Kubrat Pulev in a heavyweight title fight should be a warning sign, because there are clear levels even within the pro ranks. When the novelty of these internet celebrities wears off, who will actually want to watch them fight? Just tune in to the next UFC or actual boxing event instead.

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2. Insults the Champions

What must the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua, and Terence Crawford think about all of this nonsense? To give positive attention to either of the Paul brothers is an affront to these great warriors because they dedicated their lives and bodies to boxing. Furthermore, to bring McGregor into the same conversation as Jake is also a joke because their impact on combat sports is so different.

The emphasis on pay-per-view returns over competitive achievements is a sign of misplaced priorities by the media and promoters. World-class champions like Billy Joe Saunders, Devin Haney, and Demetrius Andrade should not find themselves fighting on undercards beneath internet personalities. For combat sports purists, this is just unforgivable and tarnishes the value of titles.

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1. Boxing is Not a Joke

First and foremost, boxing is not a joke or game. Every year, on average, 13 boxers die as a direct result of competition. In 2019, the likes of Patrick Day and Maxim Dadashev died from head trauma immediately after their WBO and IBF sanctioned events. Meanwhile, countless boxers suffer from CTE and dementia from their long and brutal careers. These YouTubers don’t understand that it isn’t a game.

Former NBA star Nate Robinson demonstrated that sheer athleticism isn’t enough. Nobody should want to watch an untrained fighter endure a brutal knockout like that. In all likelihood, there will be a serious injury as a direct result of the greed and hubris of these internet personalities and their enablers. While nobody needs to care about Jake Paul’s health, his platform will diminish younger people’s understanding of this sport’s stark dangers.

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20 Reasons Jake Paul Is Making A Joke Out Of Combat Sports

20 Reasons Jake Paul Is Making A Joke Out Of Combat Sports

20. Fans Fall for it

19. Cringeworthy Faceoffs

18. Champions Deserve Exposure

17. Annoying Media

16. Irresponsible Commissions

15. Bad Attitudes

14. Shortsighted Perspective

13. Pay Structures Exposed

12. More Difficult to Make it

11. Dedicated Pros Suffer

10. Disillusioned Fans

9. Greedy Promoters

8. Watered-Down Product

7. Diminished Glory

6. Annoying Personalities

5. Fighters Can’t Say No

4. Pay-Per-View Robbery

3. No Long-Term Impact

2. The Fights Are Terrible

2. Insults the Champions

1. Boxing is Not a Joke

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