Jake Paul had a foreboding.
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano were about to headline a boxing card at Madison Square Garden, the first in arena history to do so, and Paul's mind was already on the next fight.
"I had a dream about a trilogy series that the first fight is so good and so brutal and so entertaining that they have to be rematched," Paul said in an interview from his Greenroom in the Garden two days before the fight. "A different winner a second time, and then a third settles everything. I don't know, we can be here for the next few years."
Taylor defeated Serrano in split decision, and each fighter earned a guaranteed $1 million. The fight, on 30 April, immediately called for a rematch, both in the ring and among observers who called the men or women a front-runner for the fight of the year. Since then, the people involved have been angling for that rematch, and the prospect of a trilogy looks pretty realistic.
Professional women's boxing has never seen a trilogy fight, but it has never seen the likes of Paul, whose presence stands as a disruption to professional boxing – or as a sideshow, depending on who you ask – Elevating the game.
Paul, 25, is a former YouTube star who is known for doing dangerous pranks and stunts, humiliating colleagues, stifling their competition and giving coronavirus a hoax in 2020. He was also charged with, and faced, criminal trespass for participating in a robbery at a mall. Allegations of misconduct by other social influencers.
He started boxing in 2018, when he knocked out a fellow YouTuber in an amateur competition. Fighting the fight, Paul built up his antics and power to draw, much to the wrath of some fans in the sport and others, who claimed that his social media had bought him an unearned ticket to the ring and into boxing. His entrance was only a duel.
That same line of criticism has raised questions about whether she has been honest about her latest announced effort: to produce women's boxing.
Serrano, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing, is the first client under Paul's promotional company, Most Valuable Promotions. Paul said he saw an opportunity in the way women boxers.
Women's boxing faces a number of problems, including pay issues and a lack of oversight. Male and female boxers are considered contractors. They pay for their own health care, and give a large portion of their fighting earnings to their managers, trainers and other support staff members.
But perhaps the biggest chicken-and-egg situation in women's boxing is one that faces many women's sports: television networks will not broadcast women's boxing without knowing it will attract fans, but women's boxing will come on television. Can't attract fans. Enter Jake Paul and his massive followers on Instagram and YouTube.
"Love her or hate her, she still made it possible for Serrano to pay for this fight," said Christy Martin, who won the World Boxing Council's women's super-welterweight title in 2009. "Maybe without Jake Paul, the fight wouldn't have happened."
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