ATLANTA (AP) — YouTuber-turned-cruiserweight boxer Jake Paul and undefeated WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis have agreed to fight on Nov. 14 at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
Paul’s promotional company, Most Valuable Promotions, and Netflix announced the highly unusual matchup Wednesday. Netflix will stream the fight worldwide to its more than 300 million subscribers.
The 30-year-old Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs), a three-division world champion, would be the first star near his ostensible prime to face Paul (12-1, 7 KOs), the online celebrity who has become one of the world’s highest-paid combat sports athletes despite never fighting an elite boxer.
Netflix and Nakisa Bidarian, Paul’s business partner, did not refer to the fight as an exhibition, but it’s unclear how Georgia officials would allow the matchup to be held as a competitive bout, given the fighters’ dramatic difference in size and experience.
Paul typically weighs more than 200 pounds in the ring, while Davis is a 135-pound champion who has never fought above 140 pounds. The fighters did not announce a contracted weight or the number of rounds in their planned bout.
The fight would mark a return to Netflix for the 28-year-old Paul, whose victory last November over the then-58-year-old Mike Tyson drew an estimated 108 million viewers globally.
After Paul beat a tepid Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by decision earlier this summer, he entered the World Boxing Association’s cruiserweight rankings at No. 14, making him eligible to fight for world titles.
Instead of pursuing a cruiserweight belt, Paul recently discussed a fight with two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua — a more logical opponent in terms of size and strength — but shifted his focus to the popular Davis. who has jousted with Paul on social media for years.
Perhaps Paul can look inside his own family for a plan: His older brother, Logan, weighed 189 pounds before fighting Floyd Mayweather at 155 pounds in an eight-round exhibition bout in 2021. Promoters said the spectacle sold more than 1 million pay-per-view buys and made more than $80 million.
Davis has been billed by his promoters as “the modern day Mike Tyson” because of the frequency with which he has won by knockout, but his career and life have been rocky in 2025. He struggled to a shocking draw against Lamont Roach Jr. in his most recent ring outing in March, and he was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Florida last month before the misdemeanor battery case was dropped last week.
Bidarian said Paul and Davis are “favorites of the Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences,” and that their bout will “determine the true face of boxing’s next generation.”
“This isn’t just a fight, it’s a spectacle that brings together two of the most electrifying figures in boxing today,” Netflix vice president Brandon Riegg said.
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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing
