“Boxing has become more popular than ever because of Jake Paul” – Brendan Schaub

Brendan Schaub recently expressed his thoughts on Jake Paul’s effect on the sport of boxing. He said that Paul has reignited interest in the sport.

Schaub hailed Paul for essentially revitalizing the sport on the most recent episode of The Schaub Show, risking the wrath of ardent boxing fans.

He acknowledged that Logan Paul, the YouTuber-turned-boxer, had also played a key part in attracting new fans to the sport. He went on to say that the Paul brothers were exactly what boxing needs right now.

“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.

Schaub also discussed why boxing has been less popular over time. He said that corruption was a major issue in the sport and that it may spread to MMA. This is of course another unsubstantiated claim – mainly due to the fact that MMA is as fallible as boxing if not more.

Recently a boxing ‘advisor’ Daniel Kinehan was sanctioned by the US – which offered a substantial prize for information leading to his arrest. While Kinehan is known for his ties to Tyson Fury and several influential boxers – he’s also had close ties with Darren Till and other MMA fighters.

Just these past few UFC cards featured a number of men that were represented by an agency Kinehan co founded – MTK Global. MTK had been forced to close its shop in the fall out from the Kinehan sanctions.

Of course it’s also worth considering if Schaub is himself incentivized to express this opinion. Schaub has previously cozied up to both Logan and Jake even going to far as to set up a guest on his own show – to get pranked by them. In addition to that Schaub also had a very awkward guest spot on Impaulsive in lead up to his youtube special release.