When Katie met Jake: How Instagram created the biggest payday in women's boxing

As unpalatable as it might be to purists, this fight would not have happened without YouTube sensation Jake Paul

Sat, 30 Apr, 2022 - 18:21

Ian Mallon

KATIE Taylor's history-making clash with Amanda Serrano in the Garden, isn’t just the richest women’s bout in history – it’s an event that wouldn’t have been possible without Instagram.

Taylor-Serrano has been a lesson in the power of social media engagement, digital marketing and blockbuster influence – good old fashioned hype, just done differently.

As unpalatable as it might be to purists, this fight would not have happened – certainly not as the main event in Madison Square Garden (perhaps in the smaller ‘Hulu Theater’) - without Jake Paul.

The YouTube, Instagram and TikTok sensation – with more than 55m followers across all three networks – is famous for posting pictures of an unattainable lifestyle of fast cars, multi-million dollar homes and bags of cash.

Despite his vacuous appearance and obsession with wealth, there is a marketing genius at play and one which is set to dominate boxing for many years to come.

His experience as a fight promoter through his burgeoning Most Valuable Promotions saw him co-create and star in one of the richest bouts in recent years, with MMA fighter Ben Askren last year.

The pay-per-view event was one of the highest purchased shows of its kind in history, with 1.5m subscribers paying up to $50 each to watch Paul’s win, earning what DAZN assessed as being worth $75m.

The numbers, while extraordinary, are still dwarfed by the sheer commercial clout experienced by Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather – 6.7m pay-per-view purchases, generating $700m in 2017.

It’s easy then to see what a clever move Amanda Serrano made in bringing Paul in to help a career – which despite winning world titles at seven different weight divisions – was commercially unsuccessful as an athlete.

Speaking to the Guardian this week, Serrano – who famously doesn’t own a mobile phone, has never been on a date and is by admission, a social media avoider – told how Paul has built her profile.

“It’s definitely a big help,” she said. “Now I got Jake Paul behind me and promoting me, shining that light and writing about me on social media and giving me that push.”

Social influence: Amanda Serrano and promoter Jake Paul, who has turned around the media-shy champion's earning power. Photo:INPHO/Gary Carr

Part of that push was evident eight weeks ago, on Instagram, when a clip by Serrano received an astounding 350k views – 20 times more than the average Taylor post, even though Katie’s following on the platform is greater – 438k v 360k.

According to Jamie McNeill, co-founder of Smartworx, a digital marketing and social media training specialist company, the Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican has hit the “sweet spot of social influence” thanks to her tie-in with Paul.

“Amanda Serrano, in the space of just over a year, has gone from zero profile to one of the slickest social media operators across any sport,” said O’Neill.

“If you look at the video piece from two months ago, which received massive engagement on Instagram – she has basically hit the perfect algorithm through excellent content management – something which is extremely difficult to find.

“The video is like a cycle, once you start watching it you may end up watching it two or three times without realising it, and without knowing where it starts or where it ends.

“Instagram then effectively decides that its watchable for other users and pushes it on to the timeline of her non-followers – and there you have the hype and sudden interest.”

Essentially this is what Jake Paul has achieved by introducing a fighter and a fight to a massive audience who may not have previously cared, but are now highly engaged.

But what about Katie Taylor having greater dedicated audience figures than Amanda Serrano – should that not make her stronger?

“Follower numbers are very often just vanity metrics, which are nothing without the right content, which in turn receives the massive amounts of views from non-followers and otherwise unengaged audiences.” While most boxing fans of a certain generation will not, nor never will, allow themselves to be consumed by such hype, just think back to the level of showtime that Don King brought to fights from Ali through to Tyson.

The same rules apply – except television has been replaced by mobile and laptops – and the lens is one which is driven through Instagram and TikTok rather than traditional sports networks.

Just ask Amanda Serrano, who is guaranteed $1m for the fight of her life against the greatest fighter in history.