It is easy to dislike Jake Paul. As a congenitally lazy person, it is something that I have been doing for some time.
Paul makes no attempt to come across as likeable. A lot of it must be theatre, the act of drawing eyeballs and attention, but his public image is that of the 鈥楶roblem Child鈥, Steve Stifler in boxing gloves.
There are a lot of marks against Paul, who fights this weekend on DAZN. Perhaps the most damaging when it comes to his dealings in the boxing world is that he said, four years ago, that he had early signs of CTE.
鈥淚鈥檝e gone and gotten brain scans,鈥 he said at a press conference to promote his fight against Ben Askren in 2021, 鈥渁nd have early signs of CTE.鈥
No one knows exactly why Paul made those remarks. It may be that he thought he had shown symptoms resulting from concussions. Maybe a doctor had even told him that. He may have thought it was a good way to market the fight and to bolster his credibility.
But there is no way to test for CTE pre-mortem and it is not something that should be taken lightly.
A few years ago, I spent a few times with Alan Blyweiss, a former standout amateur who, after a disastrous start to his professional career (stopped in both fights), became one of Lennox Lewis鈥檚 regular sparring partners for over a decade.
In his mid-fifties, Alan suffers every day from the impact of his career. He struggles with balance, memory, cognition. His heart sometimes stops beating, and the pacemaker in his chest has to shock him back into life. He drinks copious amounts of water because his brain finds it difficult to regulate his body鈥檚 temperature.
He told me, honestly, when I was sat with him late one night. 鈥淭his CTE is going to kill me. I鈥檓 doing what I can to hold it back, but it is going to take my life.鈥
So I feel like I have some kind of stake in this.
There was a later suggestion of self-awareness as Paul walked back his 鈥榙iagnosis鈥. Posting to X/Twitter, he said: 鈥淚 wanna retract my comments made about CTE as it relates to me and my medical history. It鈥檚 a very serious condition that I should not have misspoken about.鈥
So let us give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
I am also tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his commitment. Training in Puerto Rico, Paul seems to genuinely be making efforts 鈥 as my colleague Harry Bullmore wrote earlier this week.
Perhaps Paul is dedicated. Perhaps it is just a work.
But here is an idea. Paul, rightly or wrongly, is one of the biggest names in the sport right now. That is why so many names are looking to him for a big payday.
No one ever questioned the numbers when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fought ten years ago. But I saw some of the filings with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), which detailed how much all of the fighters on that card were paid. Let us just say that there was a steep drop-off after the headliners.
So it would be a measure of character, for someone who earns so well outside of the ring, to spread some of that love within the four ropes that make up the workplace of his fellow boxers.
We know the measure of Paul鈥檚 character within the ring. Despite his 鈥楶roblem Child鈥 persona, he has always fought graciously and cleanly. It would also prove to be a measure of the man for him to let some of that money spread around him.
Senior writer/editor Pete Carvill is the author of Death of a Boxer (a Daily Mail and Irish Times 鈥楽ports Book of the Year鈥) and A Duel of Bulls: Hemingway and Welles in Love and War. He is also a frequent blow-by-blow commentator on DAZN for boxing from Germany.
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