Who is Jake Paul, YouTuber turned boxer, and will he be crushed by Mike Tyson?

Mike Tyson, considered one of the fiercest and more dangerous boxers ever, undisputed heavyweight champion, is returning to the ring 19 years after his last official match... to fight Jake Paul, a YouTuber.

The Paul vs. Tyson boxing match, organised by Netflix, has attracted a lot of attention, as well as plenty of questions. The age difference is huge, Paul is 27 and Tyson is 58, and even though he is retired, he has trained extensively for the fight. Has Paul lost his mind?

Well, although Jake Paul (born 1997) is better known from YouTube, he is not a rookie and has been boxing professionally for nearly five years now. Paul first came into the public eye in the defunct social network Vine, before opening his YouTube channel in 2014.

Due to his popularity, he was hired by Disney to the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. He was fired after one season... due to his unpopularity: a news report cited his neighbours complaints on the noise his parties and pranks generated.

Controversy surrounded him everywhere, much like his older brother Logan Paul. His 2017 single "It's Everyday Bro" became one of the most disliked YouTube videos ever. That didn't stop them from becoming two of the richest internet personalities ever.

Jake Paul's boxing career is surprisingly good

While Logan Paul joined Wrestling, Jake Paul started a boxing career. In 2018 he made his boxing debut fighting another YouTuber, and winning by technical knockout. His first professional match was in January 2020. He started fighting former boxers or UFC fighters, but his rivals became more and more professional.

In a 2023 fight against professional boxer Andre August, he claimed that "so far, my entire boxing career has been on PPV (pay-per-view), but now it's about more than business. Now I want to build my experience in the ring".

Paul's stats are impressive: 11 official fights, 7 wins by KO, and only one loss via split decision against professional boxer Tommy Fury. Will he be a match for Mike Tyson? We will have to wait and see: the fight airs Friday November 15 (Saturday dawn in European time) and will be streamed live by Netflix worldwide.