PFL Founder Compares Jake Paul's Marketing Ability to Muhammad Ali's

Jake Paul recently joined the Professional Fighters League. He'll fight in a "super fight" division and help promote the other fighters, which was a big part of his appeal to the PFL. A really big part apparently as PFL founder Donn Davis recently told TSN he's just about as big as Muhammad Ali. Via MMA Fighting:

“If you look at each of them individually, Jake is the best marketer and promoter we’ve seen in combat sports ever. Ever. Maybe since Muhammad Ali,” Davis toldTSN. “With Nakisa [Bidarian], he’s one of five people in the world that understand the economics and financials of pay-per-view. Maybe one of the five. So, we have one of the best businessmen in pay-per-view and we have one of the best promoters and marketers in pay-per-view now exclusively on the PFL platform to help us build that division. Couldn’t be more exciting."

This is a wild thing to say considering, well, everything we know. Conor McGregor or Floyd Mayweather have both made pretty strong cases as being the best combat sports promoters ever and they have the pay-per-view sales to back it up.

Paul has not come close to that level. While its hard to know what's true when it comes to PPV figures, it seems generally agreed upon that Paul as a headliner has topped out at half-a-million buys, which is nothing to sneeze at, it's just not on the level of those other guys, or a number of the UFC's stars. The one time Paul did break through to another level of sales, he wasn't even the main event. If 1.8 million people bought that fight it was to see Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. (What is wrong with people?)

There were also reports that his second fight with Woodley sold just 65,000 which is insanely low. Paul denied the fight tanked. Whatever that actual number was, it doesn't make the 200K - 300K who bought his fight with Anderson Silva any more (less?) impressive.

Look, Paul has built himself a brand that has made himself rich and there is an audience out there that wants to pay to watch him fight. When you don't have to give Dana White and the UFC most of that moeny, you do very well.

Should you be mad at his new business partner comparing him to Muhammad Ali? No, he's just trying to sell Paul, who in turn is trying to sell his organization. It's just that it's hilarious when you say it out loud.