Jake Paul is set for arguably the biggest fight of his career. While there’s no title on the line because it’s an exhibition, fighting WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, an active, undefeated boxer with legitimate accolades, may give ‘The Problem Child’ the legitimacy he has been craving for years, though most doubt it. The road to the bout hasn’t been exactly easy. ‘Tank’ nearly lost a fight to Lamont Roach Jr. right before the Paul bout was supposed to be announced. And then…

The Georgia Commission didn’t even want to sanction the fight because of the massive weight disparity. While Paul’s MVP finally convinced the Florida Athletic Commission to green-light it, the commission bombarded them with several rules. A good thing that came out of it, though—the fight will have a winner even if there’s no knockout, and more interestingly, one of the judges scoring the fight will be AI. Does it sound like a “freak show” yet? Well, to Ariel Helwani, it does!

Jake Paul vs. Gervonta Davis wasn’t the first that Ariel Helwani thought of

During an exclusive interview with the 43-year-old journalist on the sidelines of Fight Circus in Las Vegas, EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw was quick to ask Helwani about his “favorite freak show fight” ever. The Ariel Helwani Show host didn’t take long before presenting his nominations. “Well, I’ll just say the first one that came to mind was Fedor [Emelianenko] vs. Hongman Choi from back in the day,” Helwani said. 

Notably, the fight took place on New Year’s Eve at Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo on the Yarennoka! event. Fedor, a legendary MMA heavyweight, faced Choi, a 7’2″ South Korean kickboxer with a massive size advantage. Despite Choi’s reach and height, ‘The Last Emperor’ dominated the fight with his grappling, submitting Choi via armbar in the first round at 1:54. And fights from the old PRIDE FC days have really stuck with Helwani, as he explained his case.

“Obviously, there were a lot of them in the PRIDE days,” Helwani continued. “You don’t get as many these days in America.” That’s when he thought of the upcoming Netflix exclusive exhibition between Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis, scheduled for November 14 in Miami. “Is Jake Paul vs. ‘Tank’ Davis a freak show fight?” he asked. “Kind of, right? If it [were] an MMA and there was that kind of size discrepancy, I think people would call it that.”

There’s an argument to be made about the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight last year being even more freaky. However, Helwani didn’t appear to have thought of that one. Regardless, the unique nature of Paul’s fight hasn’t weighed it down, though. If anything, it has made it a first of its kind.

Paul vs. Davis will be the first to have a category of its own

Besides the fact that the bout will be the first to have an AI judge playing the role of the third judge, whose score will be contested to confirm the winner, BoxRec, the boxing record-keeping site, has created an entirely new category to describe the fight. This is basically history in the making, and neither fighter has even thrown the first punch. BoxRec has introduced HYB-Pro (Hybrid Professional) specifically for this matchup.

Normally, exhibition fights aren’t tracked by the site, but this contest, featuring a drastic weight difference and unique rules, has forced a rethink. The HYB-Pro tag applies to fights that blend elements of pro boxing and exhibitions, often involving unconventional matchups. While the result of the fight won’t affect either fighter’s professional record, they’ll be listed separately for visibility and historical reference.

Having said that, “freak show” or not, there’s no doubt people will tune in to watch, especially since there’s no pay-per-view, and Netflix is dirt cheap. But do you think Paul vs. Davis is a freak show fight? Or is Helwani being a bit harsh?