Jake Paul's relationship with Showtime Boxing could be over as he looks for a new broadcast partner for his return to the ring this summer.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer has been a long-time supporter of fighters having the freedom to move around promotions and networks between major events. And it now looks like he could be heading for his fourth broadcast partner in his sixth professional fight.
Showtime Boxing boss Stephen Espinoza, who put on Paul's two fights with Tyron Woodley in the second half of last year has not ruled out working with the social media sensation again. But he has said that the broadcaster are currently not obligated to show his next bout, which is slated for the summer, and that talks are still at an early stage.
Speaking with Inside Boxing Live, Espinoza said: "We're talking to him, he's certainly going to fight again, maybe with Showtime or maybe with another platform. But we certainly want to continue doing business with him.
"There are a lot of suitors and he's got a lot of financial opportunities and if someone is going to come along and write a cheque which is silly, we've shown the ability as painful as it is to be disciplined about our deals. It's got to make sense, the way that, we've stayed in this business for 36 years is knowing what our principles are.
"So if people are going around with silly money, we don't need to match that. I'm not saying that's what is happening with Jake or that what he makes is silly, it's more that that would be the circumstance where we wouldn't continue with him, if he got an offer somewhere else and it didn't make sense for us to match it."
Paul made his debut in a white-collar bout against fellow YouTuber Deji, which was streamed on YouTube's PPV platform with profits shared between he, his opponent, KSI and his brother Logan who fought in the main event. He then turned professional with DAZN in the US and Sky Sports in the UK to fight on the undercard of Demetrius Andrade vs Luke Keeler in 2020.
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But he burst onto the scene as a pay-per-view star when he knocked out Nate Robinson in the co-main event of Mike Tyson's comeback fight against Roy Jones Jr when Triller debuted in the boxing market the following November. That vicious win was followed by his first PPV headliner, also promoted by Triller, where he stopped Ben Askren within a round.
Those two fights are said to have sold over three million PPVs between them on traditional platforms as well as streaming, with Paul then graduating to Showtime, which is one of the biggest boxing broadcasters in America. There he fought Woodley in August before agreeing to face Tommy Fury, who had competed on the undercard of that night in Cleveland.
But the fight was cancelled when the Brit was forced out of the big money matchup by injury, and Woodley stepped in on late notice. The ex-UFC champion was viciously stopped in a KO that was viewed millions of times, but the event underperformed on PPV with fans disappointed that he wouldn't fight a legitimate boxer.
