Jake Paul expresses concern for PPV buys after defeating Anderson Silva

Jake Paul defeated Anderson Silva via unanimous decision last weekend in his latest boxing match and remained undefeated since he decided to put on the gloves and fight for real.

The Paul-Silva match was broadcast on Showtime pay-per-view after the YouTube star inked a massive deal with the company in May 2021. However, Paul admitted Tuesday he was concerned about the estimated number of people who bought the match.

“I think it will probably go around 2-300,000, which is kind of upsetting,” Paul said on his brother Logan’s podcast “Impaulsive.”

The younger Paul brother said he thinks Silva’s comments about being “knocked out” during his sparring sessions turned viewers off. Silva’s remarks, which he said he misspoke, turned the spotlight on the fight itself, and it was nearly called off altogether in the days before the two combatants touched gloves.

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“On the pay-per-view buys thing, the pre-buys were going crazy,” Paul added. “Up, up, up. And on Wednesday, when the news came out about Anderson saying he got knocked out or whatever and the fight was in jeopardy and all this press came out, the pre-buys tanked. All the way down

“The general public sees that and, ‘Oh, it’s not happening.’ Tommy (Fury) pulled out, Hasim (Rahman Jr.) pulled out. ‘Jake f—ing Paul can’t even get an event together. This is done.’ It killed ticket sales. We were still selling tickets, that day, everything went to zero.”

Additionally, he cited other events going on at the time – football, World Series – as possible reasons for viewers to be turned off. He vowed never to have another fight in the thick of the sports season.