JAKE PAUL could generate $18million in pay-per-view sales alone for his fight with Anderson Silva – if his estimations are correct.
The YouTuber-turned boxer beat Silva last weekend in Arizona, marking the most legitimate win of his 6-0 career.
And he believes the bout will have brought in up to 300,000 PPV buys when it is all said and done.
That amount, priced at $60, means $18m (£15.6m) would have been made in box office receipts.
Paul said on his brother’s podcast: “I think it will go around 200-300,00 which is kind of upsetting.”
The American also revealed he will now target fights in the summer, having competed against Halloween, the World Series and the NFL.
He said: “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/early August where there’s no sports.
“And by the way, all my others fights were during Covid when no one had anything to do or anything to watch.
“NFL was cancelled, NBA, nothing was on. I had to fight this year, I just had to get it f***** done, I’m sick of waiting around.”
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Paul, 25, had not boxed since last December, when he knocked out ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley, 40, in their short notice rematch.
Woodley only filled in, four months after losing on points, after Tommy Fury, 23, suffered a rib injury.
Fury rescheduled with Paul for August but was again withdrawn, this time amid a US visa issue.
Hasim Rahman Jr, 31, signed in replace but lightening struck twice as the bout was cancelled due to a weight disagreement.
So by the time Paul stepped foot in the ring against Silva, 47, it had been ten months since he had fought.
And on the week of the bout, it was thrown into doubt after the UFC legend claimed he was knocked out twice in sparring.
Silva admitted his words were lost in translation but the commission still held an emergency meeting, later passing the Brazilian fit to fight.
But Paul claimed the initial news of Silva’s fitness woes caused a negative impact on the PPV sales.
He said: “On the PPV buys thing, the pre-buys were going crazy, up, up, up.
“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 is like, ‘Oh, it’s not happening.’ Tommy pulled out, Hasim pulled out. ‘Oh, Jake f***** Paul can’t get an event together, this is done.’
“It killed, ticket sales, we’re still selling tickets, that day everything went to zero.”
