After yet another win in the boxing ring, Jake Paul has his next fights lined up in the courtroom.
Paul earned his 12th professional win in late June when he took a wide unanimous decision over former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. However, as has seemingly become customary with Paul’s fights, it didn’t come and go without controversy, as a handful of notable figures in the media claimed the bout was “fixed” or rigged in Paul’s favor. Arguably the most notable of those names was Piers Morgan, a prominent English media personality who interviewed Paul ahead of the match.
Paul, 28, has been no stranger to these claims throughout his 13-match career. This time around, though, he and fellow Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) co-founder Nakisa Bidarian don’t plan to sit idly by. Both men expressed their displeasure on social media with Morgan’s comments, and speaking in-studio on Monday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Bidarian confirmed that MVP is pursuing legal action against certain figures that made these sort of baseless public accusations.
“We are in the process, yes, 100%. Enough is enough,” Bidarian said. “The time has passed that Jake has shown what he’s able to do in the ring. People still want to criticize, that’s OK, but don’t make false accusations. Don’t make statements that definitively damage his brand, his business and MVP’s profile, MVP’s brand.
“Not to be discussed here, but the damage is we’re in business with DAZN. We’re in business with Netflix. We’re in business with Celsius. That’s the damage that you’re causing, because you’re having us have to have conversations with our partners that are just unjustifiable.
“I can definitively say our legal representation are looking at multiple individuals to go after.”
Bidarian understands these types of comments come with the territory with someone as publicly polarizing his business partner Paul to an extent. The YouTube star has gradually attempted to legitimize himself in the boxing world since first transitioning from the influencer realm in 2020. The problem now, believes Bidarian, is that it’s been five years since Paul committed to his boxing career.
“Look, [it’s OK if you’re] stating, ‘Hey, I think this or I think that,’ but when you definitively state that Jake is putting on staged or rigged fights, that’s just defamation,” Bidarian said. “You’re causing substantial damage to his business, to MVP’s business, and something that’s 100% not true, right? It’s a federal crime to stage a fight. That’s why we’re going to get a lot more aggressive in going after these individuals who make these statements.
“In the world of social media, these false statements get carried in a way that people will start to believe the narrative. That was the genesis of the issues with [UFC CEO] Dana White, because he was the one that was saying Jake’s fights are rigged, Jake’s using steroids. That’s how all that came to fruition. We’re in a place where people just can’t believe what Jake is doing, is how I look at it, so they have to say it’s staged.”
The Chavez match followed Paul’s most widely-seen attraction yet, when he boxed former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson this past November. The event marked the first time Netflix streamed a live sporting event and reached a global audience of more than 108 million viewers, according to Netflix. But with that spotlight came similar criticisms as Morgan’s that Paul and MVP continue to face.
Those usual refrains aren’t the only bit of controversy to follow Paul vs. Chavez Jr., though, as the latter was stunningly detained by federal ICE agents in California just four days after the match. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that the 39-year-old boxer had an active arrest warrant in Mexico, and that Chavez is expected to be deported to Mexico to serve a prison sentence.
Bidarian is unaware of Chavez’s current status, but stated that both he and his team at MVP had no prior knowledge of the issues.
“I got a text early Thursday morning, east coast [time], probably around 4 a.m., from an immigration advocate that I know,” Bidarian recalled. “He said, ‘Just FYI, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been detained by ICE.’ I said, ‘What?’ Then, later in the day, we find out more details.
“The confusing part is they identified him as someone to go after on June 27. Why it took until the following Wednesday night? I have no idea. I’m sure they certainly knew where he was going to be on June 28 [for his fight against Paul].”