Meet the man spearheading Jake Paul’s divisive boxing career

By Don Riddell and Jonny Velasquez, CNN

(CNN) — To some, he’s the promoter behind the fight that “broke the internet” – the man responsible for bringing the controversial bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson to an audience of millions.

But Nakisa Bidarian has referred to himself as “just an accountant” alongside his business partner Paul, the former YouTuber who defeated Tyson in last week’s underwhelming but widely-watched contest.

Bidarian and Paul co-founded Most Valuable Promotions in 2021, and on Friday, their company hosted its biggest event to date in front of 73,200 fans at a sold-out AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The main event itself was a lackluster affair, Paul landing 78 total punches and Tyson landing 18 of only 97 punches thrown. At the age of 58, 31 years his opponent’s senior and nearly two decades on from his last professional bout, Tyson was clearly a shadow of the heavyweight champion he used to be.

But Bidarian still saw the night as an overwhelming success.

“Jake had an ayahuasca session and envisioned this fight (against Tyson) happening,” he told CNN Sport after the fight. “Ultimately, when we got here, you connected six different generations. From the original boomers that were born in the 1940s, to the demographic that is most passionate for Jake Paul – which is Gen Z and Gen Alpha – all taking about this same event.

“We had journalists calling us and saying that this was the first time that their mother, who is in her 70s or even early 80s, was talking to their son about a fight. That’s what made this special.”

For those tuning in, the viewing experience was hardly hitch-free. Everyone became intimately familiar with the Netflix loading screen after the massive viewership to watch the streaming platform’s first-ever live boxing bout crashed the server.

Later, Netflix announced that a record 60 million households tuned into the event, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams. Then on Tuesday, Most Valuable Promotions said that the event made $18.1 million in total gate revenue, making it the biggest gate for any boxing or MMA event outside of Las Vegas in US history, as well as the ninth-highest combat sports gate in US history.

“The event broke the internet,” said Bidarian. “There’s never been a streaming event of this magnitude in history.

“Could we have made more money on pay-per-view? Of course,” he added. “But that wasn’t the goal here. This was about legacy, this was about brand-building, this was about an iconic moment where the world stopped and got reintroduced to boxing.”

A road to the top

Bidarian has worked for numerous enterprises as an investor, advisor and financial consultant, including a period as Chief Financial Officer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) up to 2016.

He first met Paul through a mutual friend in October 2019 and would go on to advance the former YouTuber’s boxing career.

“I executive produced Mike Tyson’s exhibition match against Roy Jones (in 2020),” Bidarian said. “I brought on Jake Paul as the co-feature of that event, and that’s where Jake got his notoriety as a fairly novice, young boxer.”

Paul earned a KO victory over former NBA player Nate Robinson on the undercard of that event, propeling his boxing career to lucrative heights.

Bidarian and Paul formed Most Valuable Promotions soon after, announcing seven-division women’s world champion Amanda Serrano as the company’s first signing.

“It was really based on three things,” Bidarian told CNN in July about the reasons behind company’s creation. “One, the mindset of fighters first, really making fighters feel like they’re the focus, and they get the lion’s share of the revenue.

“Two was wanting to double down on women. I had the experience in MMA when Ronda Rousey rose to success and really trailblazed the sport. I believe the same thing can happen within boxing, and Amanda was that vehicle, perfect athlete, perfect superstar in the making. Third was giving young boxers a platform.”

While Paul enjoys a flashy and lavish lifestyle – often posting pictures to social media in exotic cars and flying on a private jet with his girlfriend and Olympian Jutta Leerdam – Bidarian tends to operate away from the public eye.

And although Paul’s fighting career has drawn criticism, with many condemning his bout against Tyson as a low-quality encounter which was more about spectacle than sport, Bidarian is adamant that the 27-year-old is a legitimate presence in boxing.

“First and foremost, he’s a dedicated boxer who has four years of professional experience … He’s already made more headway than any boxer has who had no amateur background in those four years,” Bidarian said.

“The level of competition he’s fighting, the stage he’s fighting on, the amount of pressure on him is unprecedented.”

Shift to women’s boxing

In Serrano, he and Paul have the task of promoting one of the biggest names in women’s boxing.

The Puerto Rican’s light-welterweight unification bout against Katie Taylor was the most compelling match-up at Friday’s event in Texas, a repeat of the Irish star’s victory at Madison Square Garden two years ago.

Taylor was triumphant again in the second instalment, though many in attendance booed in disbelief when the unanimous decision victory was announced. The two women put on a masterclass, Serrano being the aggressor and Taylor exploding forward with power shots, often clashing heads with her opponent.

In round eight, Taylor was deducted a point after her fourth ruled headbutt. Serrano had seemed to be in control but was blindsided by the decision, calling Taylor a “dirty fighter.”

Bidarian nevertheless believes that Serrano is left in a strong position, despite the defeat.

“I feel blessed that she actually lost,” he said. “I hate the decision, but I love the outcome. There was a trilogy that was pre-negotiated hadn’t Katie Taylor won. There is no trilogy now in place.

“Amanda Serrano is in the greatest position of her life. She is the face of women’s boxing. I think the whole world thought she won, and now she’s going to win in a way that no woman ever has in sports before, and that’s with her bank account because she deserves every bit of it.”

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