Another marquee fight, another milestone for Jake Paul.
The polarizing YouTube star turned professional boxer has driven another impressive record ahead of his fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., with Saturday night’s card already setting the biggest boxing gate in the history of the Honda Center.
The Anaheim, Calif., combat sports venue has played host to several significant fights, including Canelo Alvarez vs. Matthew Hatton for the WBC super welterweight championship. Ryan Garcia also fought Francisco Fonseca at the Honda Center, where Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal also recently drew a sell-out crowd.
But none of them brought in as much gate money as Paul vs. Chavez has, according to Most Valuable Promotions.
Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) enters his 13th professional fight having taken on a wide variety of opponents. Most recent was former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson last November, which brought in a gate of $18,117,072 with an average ticket price of $304. That set a combat sports record in the state of Texas while also smashing streaming records for Netflix.
Previous Paul fights have also set combat sports gate records in Puerto Rico, Orlando and Glendale, Ariz.
Saturday night’s cruiserweight fight will see the 28-year-old Paul face the former champion Chavez (54-6-1), who is 11 years his senior. Paul is the heavy -575 favorite at DraftKings, where Chavez is the +400 underdog.
“He’s a great fighter,” Paul said. “I like big names. I like legendary names. He’s on my path to a world championship. He’s a tough test, a very, very tough test, but I’m here to challenge myself and do big things in this sport and then make a title run after I beat him on Saturday.”
Chavez quickly discredited Paul’s track record, keeping it short and simple.
“No, I don’t think he’s good,” Chavez said. “I think he tries (and) trains hard, but he’s not a good fighter. If he were a good boxer, everyone on this stage would be a legend. Everybody knows that.”
Chavez was considering giving himself an ultimatum: a possible retirement if he loses to Paul. Chavez remains extremely confident that he is going to be the first person to knock out the former YouTube star.
“I always prepare to take a win,” Chavez said. “I’m here to win, that’s why I am very confident I’m going to take the win.”
Meanwhile Paul went as far as to predict how he would prevail Saturday night.
“I’m gonna knock him out. That’s what I came here to do,” Paul said. “First round, it’s gonna be an early night. It’s gonna be a right hook right away and I’m going home early. We don’t get paid for overtime. This is gonna be a spectacular performance.”
Paul and Chavez are scheduled to get underway after 11 p.m. ET, concluding a seven-fight card.
–Field Level Media
