Hill: Like addicts, we can’t quit watching Jake Paul’s gimmick fights
It happened again.
Every time it does, the screams get louder and louder that we are done with this.
That we aren’t going to do it anymore.
But we are essentially addicts feening for that next fix, once again vowing to kick the habit every time we slip.
Then, like twice a year, we simply repeat the cycle and give into our temptation knowing full well the self-loathing that is sure to follow.
Of course, we all watched another absolute debacle of a Jake Paul fight.
At least the preliminary numbers and astronomical amount of social media chatter indicates that most of us did.
It’s embarrassing the number of people who watch these televised car crashes.
And don’t mistake this for a societal critique.
It’s a confession.
“Let’s hope that feeling is remembered the next time we are asked to ignore reality for such a stupid event,” someone wrote after Paul fought Mike Tyson last year.
It was me.
And yet, there I was, eagerly tuned into the fight card on the main screen Friday night with a terrific college football playoff game relegated to a secondary screen and multiple group texts blowing up with comments.
We do it to ourselves
Paul’s boxing events are some sort of disease we willingly inflict upon ourselves.
He should absolutely be given credit for creating a marketplace for absolute nonsense.
Paul also does clearly work very hard at the craft even though he got such a late start in boxing.
He’s nowhere near good enough to compete on a global stage, but he is a brilliant marketer.
Paul got people to watch and follow a mediocre fighter compete against has-beens and never-weres like he was Muhammad Ali in his prime taking on the top contenders in the world.
It was a remarkable feat.
Then after he fought a completely and totally disinterested Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June, Paul sensed the gimmick may be running its course.
He’s an internet personality. A content creator. He knows how to give people what they want. How to feed the beast.
The only way to spark interest again was to essentially agree to get knocked out.
So he decided to challenge a real boxer in his prime in Gervonta “Tank” Davis. And when legal issues blocked that matchup, Paul agreed to a massive challenge in former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
A truly dangerous fight in which Paul had no real path to victory outside of paying Joshua to take a dive.
And so, many people who vowed to never be burned again by this farce of a self-promoter, couldn’t wait to see him get knocked cold.
Clownish competition
What they got was Joshua, having agreed to a bigger ring, chasing Paul for the better part of five rounds.
Less punches were thrown than in line at Starbucks on a normal Thursday.
Then Paul started diving at Joshua’s leg for some reason. Well, because he was exhausted.
But it made a farce somehow look even more clownish.
Tired and warned about throwing himself on the ground, Paul was out of options and finally started taking the pummeling everyone had tuned in to see.
Joshua broke Paul’s jaw with a right hand, but it still wasn’t satisfying enough for many people whose sole purpose in watching the fight was to see him sound asleep in the center of the ring, glazed-over eyes looking up at the lights.
It’s a gross and prehistoric bloodthirstiness, but one Paul himself somehow created.
What’s next for him? Did the fact he stayed conscious keep the door open enough to make the masses want to see him overmatched and knocked out again?
Did he earn enough respect simply by not dying that he can go back to circus fights and maintain an audience?
Rest assured, he’s going to figure out what people are willing to watch. It’s his actual talent.
But I swear I won’t be watching and thousands and thousands of others have promised the same thing after what social media declared a joke and an embarrassment on Friday night.
Seriously, this time we all mean it.
You know, until next time.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
