"Are we doing video?" Jake Paul asks, half-aiming the question at me and half-directing it towards his representative on the Zoom call. "Err, yeah?" I reply. "I don't usually upload the video from these sorts of chats, but..."
But it would seem strange to interview one of the biggest screen presences of the last decade and not have him appear, well, on screen, writes Alex Pattle.
'Biggest' replaces 'most popular' here, given the word 'popular' tends to imply widespread affection, and it's fair to say that Paul is more well known than well liked. Controversies have arisen at intervals since the American emerged on Vine in 2013, three years before his two-season stint on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. Paul, who turned 26 three weeks before our interview, has nevertheless only seen his profile grow in the decade since, with 20 million YouTube subscribers and 22m Instagram followers as of this month. Still, he does not identify as a YouTuber or influencer anymore; he's a professional boxer.
If his knockout win over former NBA star Nate Robinson in 2020 didn't convince you, or his knockouts of MMA stars Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren in 2021, or his decision win over UFC legend Anderson Silva in October, then he hopes his fight with Tommy Fury will. Well, kind of; he'd argue he doesn't care what you think at all.
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