Couple days back, MMA analyst Brendan Schaub claimed that Jake Paul is deserving for a new rise in popularity of boxing.
“Look at the analytics. The reason boxing has become more popular than ever is because of Jake Paul. That is black and white. You can hate on me all you want. The reason boxing views are up is because of Logan and particularly Jake Paul. Boxing needed that to get people to f***ing tune in.”
As with most of Schaub’s claims – this too can easily be checked and refuted. Paul embarked on his amateur career in August of 2018 and has since gone pro.
As we can observe from google trends – Jake Paul’s career does corelate with rise of interest in boxing – but it’s not necessarily indicative of him moving the general trend upwards. And in many ways boxing is still in a lull period. The one bout that seemed to move general interest toward boxing was that in June of 2021 – which was ahead of the Tyron Woodley showdown in August.
The first bout between Woodley and Paul marked the beginning of a new era for Paul. While Askren was known to be a bad striker, Woodley had actually managed to knock out opponents and was in substantially better shape than his college buddy Askren.
But regardless of having trained striking for a number of years Woodley was fairly stiff. The boxing bout was more of a technical exchange than anything else. Paul towered over Woodley and managed to survive an assault in Round 4 thanks to the handy ropes holding him up. Paul, in turn, outlanded Woodley 71 to 52 according to official stats from Showtime boxing.
“I feel like I won the fight,” Woodley said right after the bout. “I feel like Jake is a great opponent. I came in great shape because I knew he could take a punch. No disrespect but f— the [Tommy] Fury fight, Jake and I can run it back. Nobody is going to sell a PPV like we did. I felt like he was tough. I hit him and the ropes held him up.”
And even though time went by, and the rematch went decisively to Paul, Woodley still maintains he won. In a recent appearance he explained:
Judges scorecards tell a different story.
The judges’ scorecards awarded the split decision victory to Paul. With Jaime Garayua (77-75) and Dana De Paolo (78-74) siding with Paul, while Phil Rogers preferred Woodley (77-75).