Having wrapped up the Mike Tyson fight last year in November, Jake Paul was on the prowl for his next challenge. Canelo Alvarez and Gervonta Davis were his main goals, but he had to settle for former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Despite the downgrade in opponent quality, ‘The Problem Child’ moved forward. After all, the incentives were massive. WBA was going to rank him if he defeated Chavez Jr. in their June 28th fight. Paul went on to beat Chavez Jr. with a comfortable unanimous decision. Lo and behold!

The sanctioning body delivered on its promise. ‘El Gallo’ was placed No. 14th in their cruiserweight rankings. Paul celebrated—he was now eligible for a world title fight, eyeing Gilberto Ramirez’s WBO and WBA cruiserweight belts. And bam! The news dropped. Ring Magazine reported that the WBA is set to review Paul’s spot during their European convention in Madrid on July 15-18, after complaints from ranked contenders. Since the update a few days ago, there was radio silence in the Paul corner, but the 28-year-old has finally broken that silence.

“I don’t f**king know,” Paul told Seconds Out when asked about his thoughts on the latest development. “I should be ranked no.1. Everyone else can suck a d**k.” Notably, Chavez Jr. wasn’t ranked by the WBA before the fight, and hadn’t gotten a significant win in several years. And the 39-year-old hadn’t faced a cruiserweight in a professional 10-round fight since December 2021.

If that wasn’t enough, Jake Paul’s only career loss came against Tommy Fury, a boxer who briefly held a top-40 WBC ranking. At 28, Paul has yet to face—or beat—an actively ranked opponent. Prior to his bouts with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Mike Tyson, his resume largely featured former MMA fighters, many of whom were arguably past their prime. Still, Paul’s business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, continues to defend his place in the rankings.

Business partner claims people are trying to keep Jake Paul out of boxing

After the review update surfaced, Bidarian appeared in an interview with Ariel Helwani, where he defended Paul’s position. “You have no idea how many people tell us how people are trying to keep Jake out of boxing,” Bidarian said when asked about the matter. “How people are calling different people and saying, ‘If you work with MVP, you can’t work with us.’”

Bidarian claimed that he knew who those people were, but refused to name them. “It’s laughable that you’re that bothered by this young man and his success and his impact on the sport that you’re going to that length,” he added. Suggesting he has no idea whether the WBA would end up removing Paul from the rankings, Bidarian used other ranked fighters to make his point.

Bidarian highlighted the resumes of WBO’s 11th Fabio Turchi, WBA’s 13th Giovanni Scuderi, and WBC’s 14th Olanrewaju Durodola to emphasize Paul’s superiority. “Jake Paul has never fought an opponent, [who] was there to lose. Every opponent, based on his development as a boxer, has been challenging for him,” he said. 

Even though Jake Paul’s spot on the WBA rankings is under threat, it appears both he and his business partner are going down swinging. While Bidarian made great points, does that mean the entire system is flawed? And if so, does Paul still deserve a title shot?