Jake Paul will box again on 24 December 2026 in Dubai, his first fight since Anthony Joshua broke his jaw in two places last December. His promoter, Most Valuable Promotions, announced the date on 29 October without an opponent, and Paul told reporters: "We've got plenty of names on the list; let's see who signs the contract."1
The comeback adds one more chapter to an odd résumé. The 29-year-old from Cleveland appears on a Disney Channel list, a Vine list, a Mike Tyson list and a women's boxing list, and he reached each of them from a standing start.2
Jake Paul entered children's television, short video and professional boxing as a beginner each time, so every list here doubts his place on it before it ranks him.
Jake Paul vs Logan Paul: the best YouTuber boxer
This ranking asks which YouTuber is the best boxer of all time. Its seven names include both Paul brothers, KSI, Joe Weller and AnEsonGib, and it is the narrowest boxing question in this article.
Jake Paul's case is a professional record. He stopped AnEsonGib in the first round of his pro debut in January 2020, then knocked out former NBA dunk champion Nate Robinson that November. By the end of 2025 he was 12-2 with seven knockouts, and both losses came against real boxers: Tommy Fury in 2023 and Joshua in 2025.2
Logan Paul started earlier. His 2018 bout with KSI drew the audience that made the crossover scene possible, and his eight rounds with Floyd Mayweather in 2021 gave a YouTuber a night against the best boxer of his generation.
The case for Logan stops at the record. He moved to WWE, which leaves his brother as the only one here who turned boxing into a career.
Tyson vs Paul or Mayweather vs Pacquiao: the most disappointing megafight
A ranking of boxing's most disappointing megafights holds fourteen events that sold more than they delivered. Tyson vs Jake Paul shares it with Mayweather vs Pacquiao, Lewis vs Tyson and Fury vs Ngannou.
The Paul fight is here because of its rules and its scorecards. Tyson was 58, the bout ran eight two-minute rounds in 14-ounce gloves, and the judges scored it 80–72, 79–73 and 79–73.3
Mayweather vs Pacquiao in 2015 is the older case. Fans waited years for it and got twelve cautious rounds in Las Vegas.
Paul's defenders say the letdown was priced in. Nobody bought that night expecting a 58-year-old to win.
Jake Paul vs Evander Holyfield: the greatest opponent Mike Tyson ever faced
This ranking turns the Tyson fight around and asks who was the greatest opponent Mike Tyson ever faced. Jake Paul shares it with Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks and Buster Douglas.
Holyfield has the strongest case. He stopped Tyson in the eleventh round in November 1996 and won the June 1997 rematch when Tyson was disqualified for biting both of his ears. Douglas owns the most famous single night: a tenth-round knockout in Tokyo in February 1990 that ended Tyson's run as undisputed champion.4
Of the nine, Paul alone met Tyson long after his prime. Tyson won his first world title at 20 and was nearly three times that age in Arlington.
The case for including Paul is scale. None of the others fought Tyson in front of a global streaming audience.
Anthony Joshua vs Anderson Silva: the best fighter Jake Paul has faced
Here the question is about Jake Paul's own résumé: who is the best fighter he has ever faced? The ten options are his real opponents, among them Nate Robinson, Tommy Fury and Mike Tyson, so Paul himself is not on the list.
Anthony Joshua is the obvious boxing answer. He won Olympic gold in London in 2012, held the unified heavyweight titles twice between 2017 and 2021, and stopped Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 people at Wembley.5 He is also the only opponent who knocked Paul out.
Anderson Silva carries the case from another sport. Silva held the UFC middleweight title for 2,457 days with ten defences, the longest reign in UFC history, and he was 47 when Paul outpointed him in October 2022.6
Nate Diaz, Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren make up the MMA wing. All three came from the UFC, and none had boxed professionally before facing Paul.
Jake Paul vs Canelo Álvarez: the biggest draw of the 2020s
Who is the biggest draw in boxing of the 2020s? The twelve names include Canelo Álvarez, Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Gervonta Davis and Jake Paul, with Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson as returning attractions.
Paul's numbers are commercial. Across eight pay-per-view bouts he sold 2.75 million buys worth about $152.9 million, and Forbes put him 46th among the world's highest-paid athletes in 2021.2
Canelo is the traditional answer. The Mexican four-division champion has owned the Cinco de Mayo and September fight weekends for a decade, against opponents who held world titles.
The split is between two audiences. Canelo sells to people who already buy boxing; Paul sells to people who had never paid for a fight before.
Netflix's biggest live night: Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson vs the Beyoncé Bowl
This ranking asks what the biggest Netflix live event has been. Its fifteen options run from the Beyoncé Bowl at the NFL on Christmas Day to WWE Raw's Netflix debut, The Roast of Tom Brady and two Jake Paul fights.
Paul vs Tyson is the benchmark for the whole list. Netflix counted 65 million people watching at once, then a record for any streamed sporting event, even though it was postponed from July after Tyson's ulcer flare-up.3
Beyoncé's halftime show is the strongest rival because it reached the NFL's own audience on top of Netflix's.
Paul's second entry, the Joshua fight in Miami, is the reminder that the platform keeps booking him. It is also the night his jaw was broken.
Jake Paul vs Ryan Garcia: the most overrated boxer
The twenty-six most overrated boxers of all time include Floyd Mayweather, Anthony Joshua, Canelo Álvarez, Ryan Garcia and Jake Paul. This is the unflattering list in the article, and Paul is its most predictable name.
The evidence against him is the paperwork. Beating Julio César Chávez Jr. in June 2025 got him a WBA ranking of 14th at cruiserweight, and he lost that ranking in January 2026. The WBC said he would need to beat a top-15 contender before any title shot.2
Ryan Garcia is here on similar grounds: a social media following bigger than his record against elite opposition.
Paul's defence is that he never claimed to be the best boxer in the world, only the most watched one.
Madison Square Garden, 2022: Jake Paul, Amanda Serrano and women's boxing
This ranking asks who has done the most for women's boxing. Most options are champions and pioneers: Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields, Laila Ali, Christy Martin, Nicola Adams and Cecilia Brækhus. Jake Paul is the one promoter.
His entry rests on Most Valuable Promotions, the company he founded in 2021. Its first signing was Serrano, and in 2022 MVP co-promoted her fight with Katie Taylor alongside Matchroom.
That fight, on 30 April 2022, was the first women's bout to headline Madison Square Garden. Taylor won a split decision.7
Christy Martin and Laila Ali carried the sport on network television decades before a YouTuber put money into it, and their supporters will say the fighters did the fighting.
Vine, 2013: Jake Paul and Shawn Mendes among the top Vine stars
Jake Paul's internet career starts on the top Vine stars ranking, next to Logan Paul, Lele Pons and Zach King.
Paul joined Vine in September 2013 and had 5.3 million followers and two billion views by the time the app shut down.2
Shawn Mendes outgrew the platform by another route: his Vine covers turned into a record deal.
From Bizaardvark to boxing: Jake Paul vs Zendaya among Disney Channel stars
The best Disney Channel stars of the 2010s list holds 29 names, among them Zendaya, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Jenna Ortega. Jake Paul is the one most people forget was on the channel.
He played Dirk Mann on Bizaardvark from 2016. In July 2017 Disney announced he was leaving the show; Paul later said he was fired after a local news report about neighbours' complaints over his parties and crowds of fans.2
Zendaya shows how far the same channel could take someone. She went from Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover to an Emmy-winning career in film and television.
Paul's Disney run lasted barely two years, and he has never gone back to scripted television.
Jake Paul vs KSI: the most successful YouTuber turned entrepreneur
Seventeen creators share this ranking, including MrBeast, PewDiePie, Logan Paul, KSI, Michelle Phan and Huda Kattan. Jake Paul is here for businesses that have little to do with his videos.
He co-founded the venture firm Anti Fund in 2021 and the betting company Betr in 2022, which raised money at a $375 million valuation in March 2024. In June 2024 he launched W, a men's personal care line sold through Walmart.2
KSI has the louder product. Prime, the drink he started with Logan Paul, put two YouTubers on supermarket shelves.
MrBeast's company sets the ceiling for everyone else on the list. Paul's case is breadth: promotion, venture capital and retail at once.
Cleveland's most famous: Jake Paul next to Halle Berry
The 27 most famous people from Cleveland include Halle Berry, Steve Harvey, Bob Hope, Jesse Owens, John D. Rockefeller, Kid Cudi and Jake Paul. On this list he is the newest name by decades.
Paul was born in Cleveland in January 1997 and grew up in suburban Westlake with his brother Logan.
Halle Berry is the name the city usually leads with. She was born in Cleveland, and her Oscar for Monster's Ball made history as the first Best Actress award to a Black woman.
Jesse Owens, the Olympic champion of the Berlin Games, gives the list its other athlete and a far older claim to fame.
Where Jake Paul goes from Dubai
Across the twelve, Paul is never the obvious choice and never easy to leave out. The boxing lists keep asking whether his record is real, and the entertainment lists keep asking whether he is still a performer. Every option here was settled with two names on one screen, and the December fight in Dubai will give boxing writers one more result to weigh.
Pick the twelve lists you would put Jake Paul on, and build that ranking yourself.
More rankings, more angles
- Where Does Logan Paul Rank in WWE and Beyond? 14 Lists — the older brother, from Vine to WrestleMania
- Where Does Mike Tyson Rank All Time? 16 Lists Weigh In — the opponent Paul beat at 58
- Is Canelo the Best Boxer of All Time? Where He Lands on 14 Lists — the draw Paul's numbers get measured against
Sources
- Al Jazeera — Jake Paul's 24 December return in Dubai, the 29 October announcement, the Joshua knockout and broken jaw, and his quotes: aljazeera.com (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Jake Paul: birth and Westlake upbringing, Vine figures, Bizaardvark and Disney exit, boxing record, WBA ranking, pay-per-view totals, Forbes 2021 list, Anti Fund, Betr, W and Most Valuable Promotions: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson: rules, scorecards, postponement and 65 million concurrent viewers: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Mike Tyson: first title at 20, the Douglas, Holyfield and Lewis fights: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Anthony Joshua: 2012 Olympic gold, two heavyweight title reigns, the Klitschko fight at Wembley: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Anderson Silva: 2,457-day UFC title reign, ten defences, the 2022 Paul fight: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)
- Wikipedia — Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano: first women's fight to headline Madison Square Garden, co-promoted by MVP and Matchroom: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-11-01)