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True MVP: How Jake Paul, Nakisa Bidarian changed women’s boxing

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Boxing’s self-proclaimed “disruptors” are heading across the Atlantic.

On Sunday in London, Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, which boasts the most female boxers in the world, will host its first show in the UK [Sky Sports in the UK, 7 p.m. GMT, ESPN App in the U.S., 12 p.m. ET].

They don’t do it halfway either.

The main attraction of the gala will be two world title fights: Caroline Dubois vs. Terri Harper for the unified lightweight titles and Ellie Scotney facing Mayella Flores in the co-main event for the undisputed junior featherweight title.

Paul, along with business partner and MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian, have made aggressive moves in the women’s boxing space over the past five years, acquiring many of the best and brightest talent, including several world champions.

They are also shaking up the MMA world by promoting the first-ever Netflix event headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, as well as a May 16 second round with Francis Ngannou. Paul, of course, attracts millions of eyes when he fights himself, having shared the ring with Tommy Fury, Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua already in his relatively brief but provocative professional career.

However, women’s boxing is the bread and butter of his promotional activities and has been from the very beginning when a gap in the market was noticed. True to their destructive attitude, Paul and Bidarian didn’t dip their toes in the water, but jumped straight into it with a cannon.

Their first signature? Seven-year-old world champion Amanda Serrano.

“We started this journey in 2021 and created Jake Paul’s first pay-per-view video [vs. Tyrone Woodley] from Showtime stars Amanda Serrano. People thought we were crazy,” Bidarian told ESPN before announcing the MVP broadcast deal.

That was the plan, coupled with Serrano headlining her own shows: stacking Paul’s hidden cards with their contestants, showcasing them and their stories on massive platforms. They registered for five Top 10 female boxers according to ESPN. We plan to have more women on both sides of the Atlantic, with Alycia Baumgardner defending her unified junior lightweight titles on April 17 in Up-to-date York.

Bidarian – who is a businessman first and a self-proclaimed “boxing newbie” second – joined the UFC in 2011 before climbing the ladder to become CFO around the same time Rousey mania erupted and took the sport to another level.

It gave him insight into the potential of women’s combat sports.

“In 2015, Ronda Rousey was clearly, by all statistics, the biggest fighter in the UFC – both male and female. Bigger than Conor McGregor,” he explains. “When we founded MVP, Jake and I were united on three things: fighter first, giving opportunities to newborn athletes, but really… Supporting women’s boxing. From my UFC days, I had the belief that this could work in business.”

But of all things, why women’s boxing?

“Eddie Hearn keeps telling me, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Bidarian says. “What we see, others are either blind or choose to be blind. We see it very clearly.”

For now, the numbers support him. While Hearn helped build and promote arguably women’s boxing’s biggest star, Katie Taylor – working with Bidarian and Paul during Taylor’s trilogy with Serrano – MVPs went all-in on women’s boxing in a way never before seen.

The 2022 Taylor vs. Serrano fight was watched by about 1.5 million viewers on DAZN, and the second fight was the main event on the Paul-Tyson card, which Netflix said was watched by 60 million. Trilogy, an all-female historical spectacle that was watched by more than 19,000 people at Madison Square Garden, attracted an audience of six million on Netflix.

When she speaks, it’s clear that Bidarian is passionate about women’s sports. He led the $4 billion sale of the UFC to Endeavor (then WME-IMG) in 2016 and declared at the time that it was the pinnacle of his career. However, this was overshadowed by Taylor-Serrano III’s record-breaking card at The Garden in July 2025.

These are not only the most impressive fights with the participation of recognized players, in which MVP competed. They nurture talent – ​​like Yokasta Valle – and sign those they feel confident can become future stars, like Baumgardner. Bidarian worked to develop his relationship with Dubois for two years, meeting over dinner and discussing the role he could play in the future of women’s boxing.

The Briton signed MVP in December 2025 and was quickly introduced to Paul-Joshua’s undercard in Miami this month.

“Every time I meet with them to talk about the future and what’s next, it’s very positive,” Dubois tells ESPN.

“You need a positive guy, you don’t need a guy who says, ‘I don’t know how it’s going to happen, I don’t know if we can put the money down [up].’

“Every time he says, ‘Yes.’ Every time he says, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do, and if we can’t do it this way, we’ll find a way.’

“When Ronda Rousey came on the scene, she lit the world on fire. Forget about men and women, she was once the highest paid UFC athlete. He saw that a woman could do it and I think he [Bidarian] has been taken over by it.”

But there is a lot of work to be done. More disruption to be unleashed.

“I want to have an umbrella brand that represents the best female athletes in the world and make sure that you regularly compete for championships at the world level,” Bidarian declares.

“It may take three years, it may take 10 years, but we will get to a place where it will be a separate, powerful entity.”

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Robert Garcia picks who deserves a higher spot in the all-time rankings between Mayweather and Pacquiao

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Robert Garcia picks who deserves the higher all-time ranking between Mayweather and Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are considered two of the greatest of all time, but despite their meeting in 2015, fans still argue over which man was the greatest. Now the world-famous coach Robert Garcia has spoken.

Pacquiao is the only eight-division boxing world champion in history. In his legendary career, he ruled the flyweight division in 1998 and then ruled every division from super bantamweight to super welterweight.

Although unlike the self-proclaimed “TBE”, “Pac Man” was defeated eight times, including a loss to Mayweather, who famously retired with a 50-0 record, having won world titles in five different weight classes.

However, in clip captured by RyckesportsTVGarcia stated that he believes Pacquiao ranks higher in the “GOAT” debate because of the love he has received outside the ring as well as his skills in it.

“I think Pacquiao was better. Mike Tyson told me something: ‘To be the GOAT, it’s not just because of your boxing records, you have to be loved and accepted by the fans’ – and everyone loves Pacquiao.

“As Tyson says, [you must be able to] walk down the street with no bodyguards, everyone who comes up to you shakes your hand, if you can’t do it, you can’t be the GOAT if you can’t do it.

in September Pacquiao could end Mayweather’s unbeaten record after reportedly agreeing a shocking professional rematch that will air live and exclusively on Netflix.

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Jake Paul’s $200 million call for Canelo immediately backfired

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Jake Paul films himself on a phone during a public appearance amid fresh Canelo Alvarez fight speculation.

Jake Paul’s final call to Canelo Alvarez backfired before he even opened his mouth.

Days after admitting that doctors may never clear him to fight again following his disastrous loss to Anthony Joshua, Paul suddenly resurfaced, talking about a $200 million fight against boxing’s biggest busy star.

The moment immediately raised eyebrows as Paul no longer looks like a man in full control of his future in boxing.

Paul’s comments were made while standing in front of a brand associated with his bookmaking interests, making the moment feel less like an actual fight negotiation and more like another attempt to force a viral spectacle while uncertainty continues to surround his future.

After all, if Paul is unable to fight again, questions will immediately begin to arise about the long-term future of his relationship with Netflix and the massive crossover business model built around it.

This is the first problem.

Jake Paul has health concerns

Paul is still recovering from a brutal knockout loss to Anthony Joshua that left him with a double jaw fracture that required surgery and titanium plates implanted in his face.

Joshua dropped Paul four times before knocking him out in a one-sided beating that changed the entire perception of Jake Paul as a boxing attraction.

Over the years, Paul has carefully controlled the danger, selling the illusion of risk against former MMA fighters and aging names.

Joshua destroyed this illusion in one night.

Now all major fight explanations come back to the same question: Can Jake Paul physically withstand the punishment of elite-level boxing anymore?

This is the second problem.

Canelo’s contract reality

The third problem may be the most essential of all, as Paul appears to be targeting the one superstar who is currently least available to him.

Canelo is already locked into a lucrative, long-term, season-long deal in Riyad with Turki Alalshikh, who has never seemed enthusiastic about “Jack Paul,” as Turki calls him, or about influential boxing entering the elite side of the sport.

Paul already lost Canelo once when the Mexican superstar walked away from previous negotiations in favor of a Saudi-backed deal reportedly worth more than $200 million.

Since then, Canelo’s game plan has become more structured.

The Mexican icon is expected to face Christian Mbilli in September, with Hamzah Sheeraz potentially replacing him as titles begin to reassert themselves in the super middleweight division.

There is also continued hope that Osleys Iglesias and Jaime Munguia will be able to eventually unify the belts, potentially setting up another undisputed championship scenario for Canelo later in the Riyadh Agreement.

Barring a possible Terence Crawford rematch, it doesn’t appear that Saudi Arabia will deviate from this structure in favor of a crossover with Jake Paul.

This reality leaves Paul chasing a fight that already seems to be moving away from him.

Jake Paul’s desperation?

None of this means that Jake Paul can’t continue to generate huge amounts of money.

He remains one of the biggest crossover attractions in combat sports and understands social media promotion better than almost anyone else in boxing.

However, the timing of this last call created a challenging perception problem.

Flashing back to retirement concerns and long-term health issues, then suddenly saying he had $200 million ready for Canelo the next, made the whole situation seem more desperate than realistic.

Instead of reviving the post-Joshua vigorous, the call-out may have reminded boxing fans that Jake Paul suddenly looks much closer to the end of his boxing career than the beginning of a recent era of superfights.


About the author

Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.

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Tim Bradley Claims Keyshawn Davis Is Behind Shakur Stevenson

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Image: Tim Bradley: Keyshawn Davis “Second Fiddle” To Shakur

“Keyshawn, Shakur is taking down all his opponents, brother. Your second fiddle. Straight ahead,” Bradley said on his YouTube channel. “You are Shakur’s second fiddle. Shakur is the dad. You are the son.”

Things get more complicated because Keyshawn and Shakur still call each other brothers and show little interest in fighting each other. This puts Keyshawn in an awkward position at 140 pounds because he is ranked No. 1 by the WBO while Shakur holds the title.

If Shakur doesn’t advance or vacate the belt again, Keyshawn’s path to a world title shot will be blocked by the same fighter Bradley says has been ahead of him all along.

This is a real problem for Keyshawn’s career because he is already 27 years venerable and still chasing the breakout fight that will make him a massive star.

The uncomfortable part about Keyshawn is that his career slowed down at the wrong time. He is already 27 years venerable and still has not had a decisive fight that would make him a real attraction. Instead, he’s headed to a rematch with Albright, a fight many fans feel like they’ve seen before.

Keyshawn recently said Top Rank wanted a rematch with Albright, but the bigger problem may be that there weren’t many realistic alternatives available. Bradley openly pointed out the risk-reward issue with Keyshawn.

“Keyshawn’s a damn good player, but he doesn’t have what it takes to be that player, man. I’m willing to take that risk,” Bradley said.

This issue is unlikely to go away at lightweight or 140 as Keyshawn’s size has become part of the discussion. After losing four pounds before the canceled fight with Edwin De Los Santos, many fans already expect him to jump higher.

At this point, Keyshawn might be better off stopping the constant promotion talk and just doing it. A move up to welterweight or even junior middleweight could create modern opportunities and remove some of the criticism about his weight issues.

More importantly, fighters at 147 and 154 are unlikely to treat Keyshawn the same way as smaller fighters. The threat factor changes when he is no longer the naturally bigger man entering the ring.

Bradley still picked Keyshawn to beat Albright in the rematch and predicted a stoppage if he played like he did against Jermaine Ortiz.

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