Jake Paul has topped the first official influencer boxing rankings chart ahead of rival KSI and former opponent AnEson Gib.
There has been a sharp rise in celebrity boxing in recent years with the trend first begun by British YouTubers KSI and Joe Weller who settled their differences in a white-collar bout that generated huge interest. The trend then escalated further with Paul's brother Logan taking on KSI - real name JJ Olatunji - in a professional bout before Jake was handed an opportunity on the undercard of boxing legend Mike Tyson's exhibition.
Logan was then given a huge opportunity to share the ring with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in a huge exhibition bout last June which seemed to be the pinnacle of celebrity boxing. However his YouTube sibling has now also launched an entire career in the sport and has picked up five victories including wins over UFC stars Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren.
There has also been a whole host of emerging cards including a Social Gloves event which saw Paul's previous rival AnEson Gib take to the ring along with a whole host of TikTok and YouTube stars including Olatunji's brother Deji. Despite a wide range of content creators now being present in the sport, none of them are yet to be included in any official rankings system due to their lack of experienced opponents.
However the Professional Boxing Association [PBA] have now released an official influencer championship rankings list, which is seen as a turning point for the classification of celebrity boxing. YouTube star Paul tops the list and is closely followed by bitter rival KSI. At No.3 Paul's previous rival AnEson Gib is ranked ahead of planned opponent Austin McBroom.
Paul's brother Logan is ranked fifth having never recorded a victory and is followed by FaZe Temper who is ahead of his upcoming rival Blueface. Paul will be back in action this year in his sixth professional fight where he will take on an opponent with a natural background in boxing in the shape of Hasim Rahman Jr.
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A win could set up a rekindled rivalry with British star Tommy Fury after their fight was shelved for a second time, or see Paul look to settle the scores with Olatunji, who will meet Alex Wassabi just weeks after Paul's return. Paul has made a huge impact on the sport having also launched a promotional career by helping stage Katie Taylor's victory over Amanda Serrano.
And the YouTube star believes he helped revive boxing which he has claimed was going through a slump. "I think this is why boxing was such a dying sport before I came into it," he said during an appearance on the MMA Hour.
"I literally saved the whole, entire sport, basically single-handedly along with some other heavyweights and some lightweights, but mostly because of me boxing was saved. And I'm starting to realise what the problem was, it's all of these fighters who don't want to man up and actually make these fights happen."
