Jake Paul thinks his points victory over Anderson Silva had a modest TV audience compared to previous predictions.
The YouTuber turned boxer passed the toughest text of his career as he dropped Brazilian MMA legend, Anderson Silva, on the way to a unanimous points victory. Despite the buzz – both good and bad – surrounding Paul in the boxing world, it seems his latest event won’t be breaking any records.
Paul first addressed ticket numbers. He told the IMPAULSIVE podcast that news surrounding Anderson Silva being knocked out in training camp severely impacted sales. Still, there was a reported 14,000 spectators at the Desert Diamond Arena in Phoenix, Arizona – around 4,000 shy of a sell-out.
“The pre-buys were going crazy. On Wednesday, when the news came out about Anderson saying he got knocked out [in sparring] or whatever, the fight was in jeopardy and all this press came out, the pre-buys tanked. The general public sees that and thinks it’s not happening. ‘Tommy pulled out, Hasim pulled out. Jake Paul can’t get an event together, this is done.’ It killed ticket sales.”
On pay-per-view specifically, Paul isn’t happy about the the official number he is expecting.
“I think it will probably go around 200,000 to 300,000 [pay-per-view buys], which is kind of upsetting. Halloween, World Series and Sunday football. This is the worst time of the year to fight but guess what, I had to fight. All of my fights from now on will be in the summer, there’s no sports. There’s like this perfect gap in July and early August.”
“All my other fights were during Covid when no one had anything to do and anything to watch. NBA, NFL, nothing was on. I had to fight this year, I just had to get it f***ing done. I was tired of waiting around.”
Paul initially told MMA Junkie that he believed the fight could to ‘up to 700,000’ PPV buys, however he did say that it all depended on fight week – and his argument that the confusion about Silva’s health impacted purchases would back this up. We await the official numbers.
Following his victory, Paul called out both MMA star Nate Diaz and boxing great Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez. His name is still linked with Tommy Fury, too, who fights this month in Dubai.