Jake Paul

Jake Paul is 29 years old and turns 30 on 17 January 2027, and on 24 December 2026 he is due to box again in Dubai for the first time since a knockout loss that broke his jaw in two places. He was born on 17 January 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio [1]. A former Vine and YouTube star, he is now a professional boxer with a record of 12 wins and 2 losses, and a promoter whose company has merged with a mixed martial arts league [12] [14].

Childhood in Westlake

Paul grew up in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland [1]. His parents are Greg Paul and Pam Stepnick, who divorced when he was seven, and his older brother is Logan Paul [1]. Biography.com says he described his parents as "really strict" and "intense", and reports that he struggled at Westlake High School and dropped out, according to Logan [1].

Vine, Los Angeles and Disney

At 16, in 2013, he started posting on Vine, the app for looping clips of up to six seconds [1]. By the time Vine shut down his videos had drawn about 2 billion views and he had more than 5 million followers [1]. In 2014, at 17, he moved to Los Angeles with Logan and kept uploading stunt and prank videos to YouTube, where the channel now has more than 20 million subscribers [1].

In 2016 he took a recurring part on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark, which starred Olivia Rodrigo [1]. It was short. In July 2017 Disney said that he and the company had "mutually agreed to end his role" [1].

The move into boxing

His first fight was an amateur white-collar bout against the YouTuber Deji Olatunji in 2018 [1]. Netflix's profile of him dates the "bold pivot to professional boxing" to 2020 and says he moved to Puerto Rico to train [5]. In 2021 he knocked out Ben Askren and beat Tyron Woodley twice [1]. Later wins over Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz both came by unanimous decision [1].

In August 2021 he co-founded the promotion company Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) with Nakisa Bidarian, with the stated aim of giving fighters more say over their own careers [5]. Forbes says he promoted the April 2022 bout between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor [2].

The first loss, to Tommy Fury

On 26 February 2023 Paul fought Tommy Fury, the younger half-brother of the heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, at the Diriyah Arena outside Riyadh [8]. Fury won an eight-round split decision, 76-73 on two cards against 75-74 for Paul on the third, and Paul's record fell to 6-1 [8]. Paul dropped Fury with a short left hand early in the last round, and lost a point in round five for pushing down on Fury's head in a clinch [8]. Afterwards he called the loss a humbling experience he would come back from [8].

Mike Tyson on Netflix

The biggest night of his career came on 15 November 2024 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where Paul, 27, beat the 58-year-old Mike Tyson by unanimous decision in a fight with no knockdowns [7]. Netflix said more than 60 million households watched, with about 65 million concurrent streams at the peak [7]. A later Netflix release gave an estimated average minute audience of 108 million live viewers worldwide and 38 million concurrent streams in the United States at the peak [6]. These are Netflix's own figures. Viewers also reported video problems, which Netflix acknowledged [7].

Chávez Jr. and Joshua

On 28 June 2025 Paul won a cruiserweight unanimous decision over Julio César Chávez Jr. at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, with cards of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93 [9]. It was his sixth straight win. Chávez, 39 and 54-7-2 going in, was passive until late in the fourth round, and Paul took heavy flurries in the tenth before the bell; the crowd booed him [9].

On 19 December 2025 he fought the former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in Miami, on Netflix [10] [1]. Paul weighed 216 pounds and Joshua 243 [10]. Joshua knocked him down four times and won in the sixth round [10] [11]. The result left Paul at 12-2 with seven knockouts, and Joshua at 29-4 [11].

Paul said afterwards that his jaw was broken in two places, an X-ray confirmed the fractures, and he had surgery [10] [11]. He had teeth removed and titanium plates fitted, and wrote that he had "lots of pain and stiffness" and had to "eat liquids for 7 days" [11] [10]. The National later wrote that the injury raised serious doubts about whether he would fight again [12].

Career timeline

• 2013: starts posting on Vine [1].
• 2014: moves to Los Angeles and builds his YouTube channel [1].
• 2016 to 2017: plays a recurring role in Bizaardvark until Disney and he end it by mutual agreement [1].
• 2018: amateur bout against Deji Olatunji [1].
• 2020: turns professional [5].
• 2021: beats Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley (twice) and co-founds MVP [1] [5].
• 2023: loses to Tommy Fury by split decision [8].
• 2024: beats Mike Tyson [7].
• 2025: beats Julio César Chávez Jr., then loses to Anthony Joshua [9] [10].
• 2026: MVP merges with the Professional Fighters League; Paul announces a December comeback [14] [12].

Best-known fights

Year	Opponent	Result
2018	Deji Olatunji	Amateur white-collar bout [1]
2021	Ben Askren	Win by knockout [1]
2021	Tyron Woodley (two fights)	Two wins [1]
2023	Tommy Fury	Loss, split decision [8]
2024	Mike Tyson	Win, unanimous decision [7]
2025	Julio César Chávez Jr.	Win, unanimous decision [9]
2025	Anthony Joshua	Loss, sixth-round knockout [11]
2026	Cédric Doumbé	Scheduled for 24 December [13]

Earnings and net worth

We found no net worth estimate for Paul from a named outlet such as Forbes or Bloomberg that we could open and date, so we give none. Forbes does publish earnings, which are a different thing.

Forbes estimated that he made about $40 million from his three boxing fights in 2021 and $45 million in total that year, second among YouTubers [4]. In its June 2025 list of top creators it put him third, at about $50 million for the last financial year [3]. His Forbes profile credits him with about $60 million from two bouts in 2025, including the Joshua fight, and lists $70 million as of 22 May 2026 in the 2026 highest-paid athletes ranking [2]. Forbes lists the sponsors Celsius Holdings and Fanatics, and boxing as his source of wealth [2]. These are annual earnings estimates, not a measure of what he owns.

Fiancée Jutta Leerdam

Paul is engaged to the Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam. He announced it on Instagram on 22 March 2025 with the caption "We're engaged" [15] [16]. TODAY says they met when he sent her an Instagram message asking her to appear on his podcast, and that they made the relationship public in April 2023, while Fox 5 New York says it became public in March 2023 [15] [16]. Leerdam, born on 30 December 1998, won silver in the 1,000 metres at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and is a six-time world champion [15]. Neither report gives a wedding date.

MVP, the PFL and the Dubai fight

On 30 July 2026 MVP and the Professional Fighters League announced that they had merged under the MVP name [14]. PFL's roster and operations will form "MVP MMA", the combined company will have nearly 400 boxers and fighters, and PFL chief executive John Martin will lead it [14]. Paul and Bidarian stay on as co-founders and board members [14]. MVP had entered MMA in May, and its first MMA event on Netflix saw Ronda Rousey beat Gina Carano by submission in 17 seconds [14].

On 29 October 2026 Paul announced he would return to the ring in Dubai on 24 December, saying he was "hungrier than ever" [12]. Sky Sports reported on 2 November that the opponent is the Cameroon-born French fighter Cédric Doumbé, a 34-year-old former two-time welterweight kickboxing world champion with a 75-7-1 kickboxing record [13]. The bout is an eight-round cruiserweight fight at 200 pounds with 10-ounce gloves [13]. Doumbé has one earlier professional boxing bout, a four-round points win in 2015, and says he will "finish the job Joshua started" [13]. Paul called himself "rusty" and said "this is BOXING" [13].