Los Angeles: YouTuber, content creator, entrepreneur, self-proclaimed face of boxing: Jake Paul has become a master of re-invention during his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. The 27-year-old from Cleveland, who defeated veteran heavyweight icon Mike Tyson in an eight-round made-for-Netflix bout on Friday, has parlayed his fame as an internet celebrity into a lucrative career in combat sports. Paul, who is estimated to have a net worth of $80 million according to the Celebrity Net Worth website, first rose to prominence in 2013, posting short-form videos to the now-shuttered site Vine, garnering millions of followers and billions of views.
He subsequently transported his knack for creating viral content to YouTube in 2014, launching his own channel which became renowned for controversies, practical jokes and hip-hop. In 2015 he made a foray into television, signing for the Disney Channel in the teen series "Bizaardvark." That relationship ended in 2017 amid increasing media attention on some of Paul's Youtube stunts such as setting furniture on fire in an empty swimming pool at his luxury home in Los Angeles.
Paul gained wider attention however when he turned his hand to celebrity boxing, a trend started by his elder brother Logan Paul who fought English influencer KSI in a pay-per-view amateur contest in Manchester in 2018. Though ridiculed by the traditional boxing world, that fight - where Jake Paul appeared on the undercard against English influencer Deji Olatunji - gai.
