Jake Paul was a child actor.
He was once primarily known as a YouTube influencer.
When he started boxing, he was seen largely as a novelty act who didn’t face serious fighters.
As of Monday night, however, Paul is ranked by the World Boxing Assn. And as impossible as it may have sounded in the not-so-distant past, that makes him eligible to fight for a world title.
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“I’ve worked hard to get here but there is nothing to celebrate,” Paul wrote on X after the WBA listed him at No. 14 in the latest edition of its cruiserweight rankings. “Long road ahead and I’m more committed to it every single day. I may veer off the path now and again, but being a world champion is my desired ultimate destination.”
The ranking came days after Paul’s victory by unanimous decision over former middleweight champion Julio César Chávez Jr., the most accomplished opponent the former Disney Channel “Bizaardvark” star has faced en route to a 12-1 record with 7 knockouts in a boxing career that has spanned less than seven years.
Read more: Win over Chávez makes Jake Paul feel like a real fighter and not just a YouTuber
During much of that time, Paul’s opponents included fellow YouTubers, an NBA player and several mixed martial artists. In the fall, he defeated then-58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson by unanimous decision in a bout that peaked at 65 million concurrent streams on Netfilix and netted a record gate of $18,117,072 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
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Paul’s only loss came in 2023 against Tommy Fury, a professional boxer and reality TV star. He reflected on that fight Saturday night after his win over Chávez.
“I don’t think I was a fighter at the time,” Paul told reporters. “I was barely 2½ years into the sport. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I didn’t have the right equipment around me, the right conditioning. My lifestyle outside of the ring was still like that of a YouTuber, a famous actor or whatever it was at that point in time. I wasn’t completely focused on boxing.
”… People still hold the Tommy Fury fight against me, but now I’ve beaten a former world champion and I’m coming to collect on that loss to Tommy.”
The current WBA cruiserweight champion is Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramírez, who was on the same bill as Paul last weekend and defeated Yuniel Dorticos in a close but unanimous decision. During the postfight news conference, Paul and Ramírez stared each other down.
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“I want tougher fighters. I want to be a world champion,” Paul told reporters. “Zurdo looked slow … tonight. That’d be easy work, too.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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