Jake Paul is having his hands wrapped in the locker room as his older brother, Logan, who also became rich and famous on YouTube, speaks earnestly to him. “You’ve expanded your mind, your circle, your emotional intelligence and your capabilities,” Logan tells Jake.
“From making silly home videos to changing the entire landscape of combat sports. Everyone in this room knows just how powerful a being you are and that’s why we’re all here, including Netflix. One day, if I run for president, I’d be honoured to have you as my vice-president or maybe secretary of defence. You’ll be in charge of the red button. The all-powerful nuke that also happens to be at the end of your right hand.”
At least Jake laughs softly when his brother mentions the absurdity of running for president on a gleaming new Netflix documentary. It leads the splurge of content which Netflix hopes will entice millions of viewers to watch Jake Paul’s embarrassing fight against the 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday night in Arlington.
In this sun-kissed corner of north Texas, a week after Donald Trump sealed his return to the White House, the hype intensifies. Jake and Logan, two brothers from Ohio aged 27 and 29, are ardent Trump supporters and, like their political hero, they peddle a constant stream of bullshit in the knowledge that some of it will eventually stick.
Jake can be heard proclaiming that “I’m a professional boxer, knocking people the fuck out” and “I could become the next Muhammad Ali”. His big brother shrugs: “Of course he’s delusional. We all are. It’s why we are where we are – until it becomes a reality. That’s the beauty of Jake Paul.”
Delusions of grandeur can become a kind of grim truth. Maybe, with the world turned upside down, Logan Paul will become president one day. There is more chance of that happening than Jake becoming a great boxer. He has applied himself with some seriousness, and trains hard, but it is difficult to give any credence to Paul’s claims of boxing authenticity.
He has had 11 fights so far and only one of his opponents, Tommy Fury, was younger than him and a professional boxer. Paul lost that bout to an average scrapper whose boxing credentials rest on the fact that he is Tyson Fury’s younger brother. Tommy Fury is also famous for being a contestant on Love Island and, since beating Paul in February 2023, he has had only one further bout – against KSI, another YouTuber.
