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How Logan Paul and Jake Paul got under the skin of Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor, Mike Tyson, Dana White, Canelo and Anthony Joshua
Jake Paul successfully finds a way to keep himself in the news just about every single week, but he took his grating work to another level with Floyd Mayweather last month.
It’s crazy to think how he and brother Logan have made the leap from YouTube stardom to the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.
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Logan, 25, has 22.9 million subscribers on YouTube and Jake, 24, has 20.3 million. While we don’t know how many of those subscribers overlap, that is a considerable pull between the two.
In this climate where your brand value has much to do with social numbers, the pair have utilised their power to force their way into major sports. As displayed by Mayweather losing his cool over a hat, they've forced their way into the heads of the biggest stars in the world - real household names.
Jake is 3-0 in a boxing ring with victories over ex-UFC fighter Ben Askren, former NBA player Nate Robinson and fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib to his name - all by knockout inside two rounds.
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Logan is 0-1, but he does have a date with all-time great Floyd Mayweather on Sunday night, while Jake has been called out by Tommy Fury.
Here, talkSPORT looks at how these brothers have managed to get the biggest names in the world of sport to notice them.
Floyd Mayweather
The 50-0 legend is already taking on Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition, but it is Jake who has rattled the 44 year old.
During the press conference for the fight, Jake and Mayweather would square up before Jake said "got ya hat!" and ran off with Mayweather's bit of kit.
He didn't get far and a full on brawl ensued backstage as a result.
Mayweather had already said he would give Jake a fight if he could beat Askren. Paul successfully did that in April with a first-round knockout and after this incident, one would think Money is more motivated than ever.
Before the media day scuffle, Mayweather said: “This year I will focus on several exhibitions.
“I will have an exhibition in Tokyo, Japan again. Of course the one with Logan Paul and I.
“And if Jake Paul can get past his next opponent Ben Askren, I will have an exhibition with him as well.”
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Mike Tyson
Iron Mike is conflicted about YouTube’s influence on boxing. He doesn’t like it, but he realises it’s power.
Still, he also knows there’s no way Logan Paul defeats Mayweather.
During a podcast with Logan - where they even ate Mushrooms together - Tyson made his prediction.
"Floyd's gonna beat his f***ing a**.
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"But it's gonna be good! It's gonna be good, he's gonna fight back though."
Even so, Tyson has an appreciation for the new life YouTube boxers have seemingly breathed into the sport that made him.
“Listen, my ego says so many things, but my reality is they help boxing so much," Tyson in November after his exhibition with Roy Jones Jr.
"Boxing owes these guys. They owe these YouTube boxers some kind of respect. They should give them some belts because these guys make boxing alive.
"Boxing was pretty much a dying sport. UFC was kicking our butts, and now we got these YouTube boxers boxing with 25 million views. Boxing's back. Thanks to the YouTube boxers."
Anthony Joshua
Logan Paul actually said he believes he can go on to beat Anthony Joshua in a boxing ring.
The YouTuber said: “If I want to carry on boxing and become a champion then I don’t see why I can’t.
“People will just have to watch the fight to realise I am actually a pretty good f****** boxer and I think a lot of my fans want to see me take that route.”
Joshua, who is the IBF, WBO and WBA heavyweight champion of the world for the record, actually likes the YouTube impact on boxing.
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“I think it’s sick, Joshua started.
“He could have promoted it from a point of view that’s non-boxing, but getting their licenses, no head guards, rounds of boxing.
“What people have to realise is, you have to put all eyes on boxing for us all to thrive.
“So KSI and Logan Paul have a bigger following than me and most of the heavyweights combined.”
Conor McGregor
Jake Paul had to work hard to get anything out of Conor McGregor.
First, he called out the UFC star after his win over Robinson in November and then put together a controversial video in which he insulted McGregor’s fiancée Dee Devlin and claimed to have proof of funds for $50 million to tempt McGregor to fight.
When this garnered no response, he filmed a follow-up in which he taunted the Irishman’s training partner Dylan Moran.
Youtuber Jake Paul calls out Conor McGregor and offers him $50million after brother Logan announces fight with Floyd 'Money' Mayweather
He then hired a plane to fly a banner over Miami Beach which simply read: “Conor McGregor is scared of Jake Paul.”
McGregor was eventually asked about the campaign ahead of his fight with Dustin Poirier in January.
“You know, that is what it is,” he said, before avoiding using his name.
“We’ll see what happens, he seems like a confused little kid to me, to be honest.
“He’s willing to get in there, I don’t know what’ll happen, it’s not on the radar at the minute with the young lad.
“I know, I have a teammate [Dylan Moran] – him and Dylan have been back-and-forth, so you never know.”
Dana White
On the heels of Jake Paul’s crusade to fight McGregor comes his issues with UFC president Dana White.
White said there is ‘zero chance’ Jake Paul would get McGregor.
When it was somewhat joked that double UFC champion Amanda Nunes might fight him, Paul’s response was ‘nobody knows who she is.’
White said he was ‘I’m thinking of letting Amanda Nunes knock his a** out’ and the Brazilian would put Paul in a coma.
White has continued to crucify the Paul brothers whenever their names pop up and when asked about them in a recent interview, he told the Shout! podcast: “The answer to that question is, who gives a f***?
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“Neither one of those guys can fight. It’s all a big gimmick. Like I said in a [recent] press conference, there’s a market for that.
“If people are dumb enough to spend their money watching that s***, I don’t know what to tell you. Good luck to them. I [couldn’t] care less what that guy [does].
“I get it. He’s trying to make some money and is doing his thing. There are people who want to spend money on that. I’m not that guy.”
And he was left puzzled by the idea Logan would fight Mayweather given Britain's KSI beat him.
“When people ask me what’s the state of boxing right now, that’s where it’s at,” he said.
“Didn’t that kid get beat up by the f****** video game kid from England and now he’s going to fight Floyd Mayweather?”
Jake Paul trains with Evander Holyfield as boxing match with Ben Askren draws closer
Canelo Alvarez
Canelo has been against the Paul brothers from the get-go insisting they are disrespecting the sport of boxing.
The feud reached new levels when fans - donning Jake and Ben Askren's faces on their shirts - invaded the ring after Alvarez's dominant win over Avni Yildirim last weekend.
Canelo’s reaction was stern and swift as he told them to ‘get the f*** out.’
Paul commented on the incident a few days later suggesting that the champion is an old hater, apparently.
"Canelo, what's your problem, bro?! Why you hate me so much?!," Jake said on Tuesday.
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"Canelo's mad. He has this thing against me. Said I'm bad for the sport. I'm disrespecting it, which doesn't make sense at all.
"I'm actually just bringing more eyeballs, more awareness to the sport of boxing. But since Canelo, you wanted to start this beef, let's do it!"
"Why not fight Caleb Plant? David Benavidez? BooBoo Andrade? You're ducking them. You're ducking them, Canelo! You're an old hater, that's what you are."
That’s not smoke that Jake Paul wants, surely.
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