Behind the great fights that bring in millions in revenue is…The art of promoting a boxing match
Exhibition boxing matches are becoming increasingly popular, gradually attracting more viewers than championship bouts, thanks to the promotional art of the organizers.
Just after a few rounds of the fight between legend Mike Tyson and YouTuber Jake Paul on the evening of November 15, the 58-year-old boxer began to tire, struggling to stay on his feet and mostly using his hands to defend. Meanwhile, the 27-year-old fighter didn’t want to deliver a knockout punch out of respect for the legend. As a result, the stands were filled with boos and whistles in protest.
In reality, many people had anticipated that the fight would unfold according to this script, yet they still spent a lot of money to watch. According to CNBC, the match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, earned more than $18 million in ticket sales for approximately 70,000 spectators. Additionally, on Netflix – which has 283 million users worldwide – at one point, 65 million people watched the fight simultaneously.
Jake Paul (left) punches towards Mike Tyson during the match at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, USA on the evening of November 15, 2024
On social media, many viewers expressed frustration with the quality of the fight. “Paul just created a masterclass in deceiving networks and audiences, making them watch him exercise for 16 minutes,” commented user spencerr13 on Reddit, receiving hundreds of upvotes.
Jake Paul, 27, along with his brother Logan, has been producing personal videos for nearly 20 years. Paul’s videos reached 2 billion views on Vine until 2014. His YouTube channel now has over 20 million subscribers and 7.7 billion views. He started his professional boxing career in 2022, facing British YouTuber AnEsonGib, and the fight was sanctioned by the World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Paul’s fights have so far generated over $152 million in revenue from television pay-per-view sales, not including other income sources like gate sales or TV rights. In 2022, he founded Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), a company dedicated to organizing boxing events, allowing him to take a larger percentage of the profits from his fights.
Around 10 years ago, many predicted that boxing was in decline, with the rise of mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The highest-grossing boxing match of all time, between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in 2015, earned over $600 million, according to Forbes. This fight was considered the pinnacle of championship boxing.
Mayweather, 47, is the highest-earning boxer of all time, with $1.2 billion from his boxing matches, according to Marca. In 2007, he also founded his own company to organize his fights, with matchups against Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez each generating over $200 million in revenue.
Before the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, boxing mostly attracted attention through championship bouts. However, since Mayweather fought UFC champion Conor McGregor in 2017, earning over $600 million in revenue, exhibition boxing began to explode.
Social media stars like Jake Paul, Logan Paul, Tommy Fury, and KSI have started to invade the boxing ring. The revenue from their fights is rivaling that of championship bouts featuring Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, and Daniel Dubois.
Logan Paul (left) in his exhibition fight against Floyd Mayweather at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, USA on June 6, 2021
Why Do Exhibition Boxing Matches Attract as Much Attention as Championship Fights?
Exhibition boxing matches have gained a level of popularity that rivals championship bouts. First and foremost, boxing is highly popular in developed countries such as the UK, the US, and Australia, where fans are willing to spend millions of dollars to watch the fights they have been anticipating.
Social media influencers like Jake Paul are even more well-known than boxing champions like Anthony Joshua. On Instagram, Paul has over 29 million followers, compared to Joshua’s 18 million. Tommy Fury, with 5 million followers, isn’t far behind his brother, the former champion Tyson Fury, who has 7 million followers.
Viewers pay to watch celebrity boxing matches not for the technical skill, but for the trends, controversies, and personalities these fighters bring to the ring. Essentially, these fights are more about entertainment than technical expertise.
For many viewers, sports are a form of entertainment, and technical skill may not be the deciding factor. For example, chess has a tournament called Pogchamps, which features famous streamers from gaming or other sports. These streamers often have a ranking between 1,200 and 1,500, far below the Grandmasters who are ranked over 2,700. Despite this, Pogchamps sometimes attracts over 160,000 simultaneous viewers on Twitch, a number only surpassed by a few top professional tournaments like the World Chess Championship, Candidates Tournament, or Speed Chess Championship.
Football also has exhibition matches like Soccer Aid, an annual event between England and the Rest of the World. The teams consist of former players and celebrities from other fields, such as singer Olly Murs, Robbie Williams, chef Gordon Ramsay, and athletes Usain Bolt and Mo Farah. These matches are typically held at Wembley Stadium, with over 70,000 paying spectators filling the stands.
The influence of social media and personalities is increasingly shaping the sports world. Former boxing champion Duke McKenzie believes that social media is the most important factor driving viewership of Paul’s fights.
“Fights like Tyson vs. Paul would never have been sanctioned in the pre-social media era,” McKenzie told Al Jazeera. “The allure of money has changed boxing in a way that can’t be undone. Only when such fights result in serious injuries will the appeal of exhibition boxing start to fade.”
How Do Boxing Organizers Promote a Fight?
Leveraging the influence of celebrities and social media is a key task for organizers like MVP and Mayweather Promotions.
Mayweather and his associates can be considered masters of boxing promotion. At the peak of his career, he would often step into the ring alongside celebrities from other fields, including Canadian singer Justin Bieber. Bieber, a music sensation in the early 2010s, was adored by many young fans during the early years of the social media explosion.
Mayweather with singer Justin Bieber (wearing sunglasses) after his victory over Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on September 14, 2013
Celebrities from various fields appearing together often create a synergistic effect, making the event even more appealing. For example, during his fights against Pacquiao or Miguel Cotto, Mayweather also brought along WWE wrestler Triple H.
Celebrities “fighting” each other also spark the curiosity of viewers. For instance, Logan Paul and KSI, both YouTubers with tens of millions of followers, competing against each other on social media, attracted more than 2 million simultaneous viewers for their fight in Manchester in 2018. As a result, organizers tend to pair celebrities of similar status and popularity for these matches.
The promotion process, starting from the moment the contract is signed, is also crucial. Before the fights between Logan Paul and KSI, both sides released rap music videos to “diss” each other, garnering a total of hundreds of millions of views. This process stimulates viewers’ curiosity and attracts more people to watch.
Before the fight between Logan Paul and Mayweather at Hard Rock Stadium in Florida in 2021, the two fighters also exchanged taunts on social media multiple times. At a pre-fight press event, Mayweather and Logan Paul confronted each other, just as Jake Paul appeared and snatched the hat off the undefeated champion’s head, running away with it. This event captured the attention of multimedia outlets.
During the press conference before the fight on November 15 this year, Tyson also slapped Jake Paul. It’s unclear whether the 58-year-old legend did this intentionally or if it was part of the organizer’s script, but the action was enough to add extra heat to the battle.
Mike Tyson slapped Jake Paul
Organizers often create contrasting images of the two fighters preparing to step into the ring, like the “good guy” vs. the “bad guy.” For example, Mike Tyson has the positive image of a legendary boxer, a symbol of professional boxing. In contrast, Jake Paul is portrayed as a “brash” young man, an “outsider” or someone “driven by money.” The 27-year-old boxer has even said that he is fighting Tyson just for the money.
Organizers are also willing to spend money promoting the fight in various ways. For instance, before the Mayweather – McGregor fight in Las Vegas in 2017, both fighters and their teams visited major cities like Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, and London for press conferences or events, often exchanging insults.
Such trips are known as a “press tour,” commonly seen in the film industry when famous actors promote upcoming blockbusters. In boxing, a press tour is also seen as the “fight before the fight.”
