Jake Paul vs. Julio César Chávez Jr.: The magnetic influencer wants to become a boxer and tests the power of his fists against another former world champion.

How many times can a magician rehearse a trick before it loses its charm? Perhaps Jake Paul didn't ask himself that question when his main activity was posting videos on his YouTube channel, as he constantly updated his challenges: practicing yoga naked on a blanket of snow, launching a Styrofoam cooler attached to a helium-filled balloon into space, getting pepper-sprayed. Things have changed now. The boxer-influencer (the order of the terms is up to the consumer) will put his magnetic ability to the test again this Saturday, when he faces former world middleweight champion Julio César Chávez Jr. The fight can be watched at midnight on the DAZN platform for a fee of $14.99.

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old dies and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum the most varied morbid phenomena are verified,” wrote Antonio Gramsci in the third of his 29 Prison Notebooks , which he wrote in 1930 in Turi prison. While the Italian intellectual, one of the founders of the Communist Party of his country in 1921, ruminated on the loss of consensus of the ruling class and the distancing of the masses from traditional ideologies, his reflections could be adapted to the fight that will take place on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim (California), scheduled for 10 rounds and framed in the cruiserweight category.

Five and a half years have passed since Jake Paul applied for and obtained a professional license from the Florida Athletic Commission and made his debut as a paid boxer with a victory over YouTuber Ali Eson Gib . Since then, he's invested significant time, effort, and money into progressing in the sport. True faith, he's done it. However, he still hasn't been able to surpass the threshold that would require removing the word "influencer" from his name when discussing his work in the ring.

Spurred on by his victory over the unspeakable Eson Gib and the financial success of that event, Paul set out (and succeeded) to establish himself in a sport that demands immense rigor and discipline. To do so, he relied on three strategies. The first was to face (and defeat) figures from other disciplines who had come to boxing to challenge him, such as former basketball player Nate Robinson and mixed martial artists Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley .

He also tested himself against boxers with weak backgrounds, such as Andre August and Ryan Bourland . Along the way, when he raised the bar a little, he recorded his only defeat (against Britain's Tommy Fury in February 2023). His latest move, the most questioned, was to face Mike Tyson last November, who was 58 at the time, who had not fought for 19 years and who six months earlier had suffered a stomach ulcer for which he had been hospitalized for 11 days, had lost 12 kilos and had received eight blood transfusions, as detailed by the former champion.

By a sporting standard, it was a Pyrrhic victory for Paul : it earned him countless criticisms from those who accused him (more or less) of beating up a retiree. But it was a resounding commercial success: the fight drew 72,300 people to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, who spent $18.1 million at the box office . In addition, 65 million simultaneous connections were recorded to watch the fight on Netflix (according to data provided by the platform), which broadcast a live boxing event for the first time.

This Saturday, the fighter-promoter (he organizes the event with his company, Most Valuable Promotions) will repeat the formula of partnering with a former world champion whose moments of glory have already begun to fade , although Julio César Chávez Jr.'s credentials are considerably thinner than Tyson's. In fact, a month after defeating Iron Mike , Paul had flatly rejected a confrontation with the Mexican. "I want someone tougher. He's (an opponent) easy to fight, and I want someone tougher who will shut people up," he explained, aware that a good portion of the boxing world views him with disdain and considers him a social climber.

A string of fighter names from a wide variety of weight classes were tossed around as the Cleveland-born, Dorado, Puerto Rico-based influencer plotted his next move. The list included Mexican super middleweight Saúl Canelo Álvarez , British heavyweight Daniel Dubois , Russian midfielder Artur Beterbiev , American welterweight Ryan García and Gervonta Davis , and even the undisputed heavyweight champion, American Claressa Shields .

“There's a really long line. They can buy a ticket and get in line to see who I want to fight. I'm the highest-earning boxer, so everyone wants to fight me . When you're the pretty girl on the block, you can do whatever you want,” El Gallo said in December. However, out of that very long line, he ended up choosing the man he had initially disdained. “A cowardly Mexican (Álvarez) was afraid to fight me, another great boxer (Davis) didn't comply. We spoke with (YouTube star) KSI, with Tommy Fury. That led me to Chávez and to continue the path of facing real opponents, former world champions, and staying active on my path to becoming a world champion,” he argued.

In Gramscian terms, Chávez, the eldest son of a Mexican boxing legend, represents the old that never quite dies. The Culiacán-born fighter is 39 years old, with a career that began 22 years ago and includes 61 fights (54 wins, six losses, and one draw), and a life plagued by setbacks, many of them widely publicized : adverse drug test results, suspensions, problematic drug use, nights in prison, and deep family conflicts.

The Sinaloan native was the WBC middleweight world champion from June 2011 to September 2012, when he lost the crown to Sergio Maravilla Martínez . Since then, his career has been a loosely tied trailer, accompanying the stormy journey of his life. Although he starred in two other high-profile fights, he left a poor impression in both: in May 2017, he was greatly outclassed by Canelo Álvarez in Las Vegas; in December 2019, he retired after five very unfavorable rounds against American Daniel Jacobs in Phoenix and was sent off by the crowd with a hail of projectiles.

The Mexican has entered the ring once in the last three and a half years . It was to face and defeat Jamaican martial artist Uniah Hall on points in Tampa on July 20, 2024. A few months earlier, he had been arrested for possessing unregistered weapons in his Los Angeles home and had undergone home detox treatment (one of the conditions imposed by the court hearing his case for his release).

Which version of Chávez will those attending the Honda Center on Saturday encounter? “I prepared myself thoroughly, conscientiously, to arrive physically better than ever, very focused. I have to be 100% for the fight,” said the former champion, who categorically ruled out the possibility of losing and presented this fight as the fuel to give his career a new lease on life. “There's an opportunity to fight for the world championship, even a rematch with Canelo ,” he enthused. Regarding his opponent, he said he was “overrated.” “He hasn't fought anyone in his life, he's never knocked anyone out. It's like I'm fighting my dad right now. When he was born, I was already a champion,” he exaggerated.

If he wants something new to finally emerge, Paul must use Chávez as a stepping stone to reach a higher level, that of boxers with a pedigree and current careers . "I know I'm the best in the world and that I'm going to be a world champion," he shouts to anyone who will listen. But repeating a statement, no matter how loudly he says it, doesn't make it a reality. Sooner rather than later, the 28-year-old fighter, who has a record of 11 wins and one loss, will have to raise the level of his opposition if he truly aspires to rub shoulders with the best in his weight class.

Currently, the cruiserweight champions are Sweden's Badou Jack (World Boxing Council), Australia's Jai Opetaia (International Boxing Federation), and Mexico's Gilberto Ramírez (World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization), who will face Cuban Yuniel Dorticos in the undercard of the card in Anaheim. All of them are several steps ahead of Paul today, despite the American's dismay.