ORLANDO – Deciphering how boxing’s four sanctioning bodies rank the top 15 fighters in each weight class is a maddening, inexact exercise best solved by just leaving these groups to their own devices.
That said, as the World Boxing Association Convention opens Friday with an evening fight card staged by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions that includes four minor WBA belts on the line, should the WBA find room in its cruiserweight rankings for Paul?
Certainly, the idea will inspire outrage, perhaps deservedly so if the rankings criteria is restricted singularly to pure boxing talent.
Yet Paul’s November 15 sanctioned fight against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson produced viewership of more than 60 million households on Netflix while generating an $18.1 million live gate. What other boxer is pushing such numbers?
And knowing the 27-year-old YouTuber’s creative mind is already plotting his return fight between April and July with more dates to come, why wouldn’t a sanctioning body seek to attach itself to a fighter like Paul, whose 3% cut to the organization for a “title” fight would ensure significant funds?
Following the weigh-in for Friday’s 11-fight card at the Caribe Royale resort where the convention is based, Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of MVP, told BoxingScene “it’s conceivable [Paul] could be ranked by every sanctioning body.
“He should be ranked based on the merits of his growth of what he’s doing, and the challenges he’s taking on. People look at Mike Tyson and say, ‘Oh, he was 58…’ That’s a tougher opponent for a guy who’s four years in the ring than 95 percent of the [other boxers] are fighting in their 10th or 11th fight … four years in the ring, no amateur career except a fight against a fellow YouTuber. And that was it.”
Bidarian said despite his relationships with sanctioning bodies including the WBA, he’s “not actively pursuing” a ranking for Paul.
“When we decide it’s time, that’s when we’ll do it,” he said, “or they may come to us.”
Is that time now, with the WBA convening for its rankings meetings over the weekend?
The Panama-based sanctioning body has turned heads for an extended period by declaring two champions in several weight classes, by backing dubious or over-the-hill fighters like Kubrat Pulev and Mahmoud Charr, who fought for the WBA’s secondary heavyweight belt earlier this month, and by moving fighters up and down the rankings with volatility and little genuine explanation.
Paul, 11-1 (7 KOs), not only has sold out arenas and brought increased worldwide attention to the sport, he’s invested in several prospect shows like Friday’s and helped women’s champion Amanda Serrano gain purses never before seen in women’s boxing.
Bidarian said he and Paul are considering “a plethora of opponents – some very well known, some hardly known, some in between” for his next bout. Following the Tyson fight, Paul’s been called out by IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and even Paul’s dream foe, four-division champion Canelo Alvarez.
“It’s amazing that on the Feb. 22 card in Saudi Arabia that many are calling the best of all time, two of the guys [Dubois and Beterbiev] called out Jake Paul,” Bidarian said. “So, really, they don’t want to be in those fights. They want to fight Jake Paul, because they know what it means to be put on that stage.”
Bidarian said he is considering multiple locations, dates and opponents for Paul’s next fight as he decides who will distribute the fight and weeds out which boxer really wants the fight.
“The business has to make sense,” he said. “We have a ton of respect for all the sanctioning bodies, but we also want to create a product that the fans engage with, irrespective of rankings or titles. It’s about star power and the engageability of the athletes and the fan base.
“I view Jake Paul as the biggest name in male boxing.”
Before WBA President Gilberto Ramirez’s arrival at the convention, former lightweight champion and WBA ambassador Jorge Linares said that while Paul doesn’t rank as “100 percent professional” by his standards, he sees how Paul mirrors the same “hunger and motivation” that Linares observes in talented young professionals.
“Everybody can be a world champion based on their ability and their mentality,” Linares said. “It takes a lot of sacrifice. And I know Jake Paul has made sacrifices to be where he is. I respect what he does – it’s show business. He makes good money. He brings attention for all the organizations. So that’s why I could see one of them [rank Paul], saying, ‘Why not?’”
Linares thought the Tyson bout was a negative to Paul’s case, but as the former champion exited Thursday’s weigh-in and considered the excitement of the Paul-backed prospects like women’s middleweight Tammara Thibeault before her pro debut and the rising heavyweight talents Gurgen Hovhannisyan and Dainier Pero, he admitted that the decision is complicated.
“We know everything in boxing is about power, money and how many connections you have…[Paul] has connections,” Linares said. “From one point, it’s a good idea. From the other, no. If it’s good to push it on the table, why not?
“I think we need to see him against a real professional fighter. He may not want that to happen because he knows he’s at this [lower] level.”
Perhaps ranking Paul and ordering a match against another top-15 fighter for him to remain in the rankings could force the issue?
“We don’t know what will happen, but we know how this business is,” Linares said.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.