Did Paul PPV Flops Kill Showtime Sports?

Mams Taylor attacked Jake Paul for spreading fake PPV numbers, saying ‘The Problem Child’ put Showtime Sports out of business with his under-performing events.

Things are heating up between Jake Paul and Misfits Boxing as the two argue over who has less pay-per-view numbers.

There’s a smoke and mirrors feel to a lot of the numbers we hear for Influencer boxing events. Shortly after Misfits Boxing held The PRIME Card with KSI vs. Tommy Fury and Logan Paul vs. Dillon Danis, it was reported that the event had sold 1.3 million pay-per-views. And then that number was countered with a much lower number: 100,000 buys.

Now Jake Paul is coming out and claiming the event did 700,000 off the back of his brother Logan Paul.

“700K buys globally they did,” Jake wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Great number. Less than Tommy and I but still a great outcome thanks to Logan being on the card.”

This really upset Misfits Boxing co-owner Mams Taylor, who spilled the tea on Jake’s PPV buys and included an explosive allegation.

“First of all you and Tommy did 550k Globally (most from UK),” Mams wrote. “Secondly, you and Nate barely did 350k. Thirdly, you guys put Showtime in $16M of debt and contributed to their downfall because you demanded crazy undeserved upfront fees and PPV’s tanked. Fourthly, we did more than 700k but nice try. What else?”

Paramount Global recently announced that Showtime would be shutting down its entire sports operation. That includes Bellator. That includes boxing on the network. And that includes Showtime-produced pay-per-view events.

This year Showtime PPV did Canelo vs. Charlo, Spence vs. Crawford, and Paul vs. Fury. They’ve been in the Jake Paul business since mid-2021, holding the two Tyron Woodley fights, the Anderson Silva fight, and the Tommy Fury fight. They were not involved in the Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz fight.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk of Jake Paul’s PPV sales hurting Showtime Sports. But former president Stephen Espinoza denied there were any truth the to comments.

“Can’t speak to all of this, but the Showtime part is absolutely inaccurate,” he wrote on social media.

“I appreciate you wanting to keep doors open,” Mams replied. “You are a lawyer, so you’re splitting hairs. My apologies. You lost $15,999,999.21! Sir, are you denying that you lost a lot of money and the PPV’s did well below projections & Showtime didn’t want anything further to do w JP?”

Espinoza hasn’t responded, and neither has Jake Paul. The general understanding regarding the closure of Showtime Sports is it has more to do with mega-corp bulls— than any thing else. Paramount Global is in serious cost cutting mode after several poor quarterly earnings, and combat sports is a risky line on their expense sheet with growing costs.

Showtime Sports as a whole wasn’t losing money, it just wasn’t making enough money. And in this economy, if the cash isn’t flowing hand over fist to the people at the very top, it’s not worth continuing to do.