'What rooster?' - How a YouTuber became a stadium sports star

Jake Paul, who faces 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday, wants to be taken seriously as a boxing contender.

That is not so easy when the self-professed 'Problem Child' strides into the room with bright red hair and a rooster placed on his head.

"What rooster?" a straight-faced Paul asks.

Not everybody gets his humour, but whether the camera is rolling or not Paul is committed to being the showman.

"Sometimes you have to do stupid things like wearing rooster hair to build your brand," he says.

The 27-year-old made his name by posting prank videos online and has since become a social media celebrity with over 70m followers across all platforms.

His transition into professional boxing has led to 10 wins, mostly against ex UFC fighters, and a loss to Briton Tommy Fury in 2022.

Paul is a novice boxer who generates huge interest. Some 60,000 people are expected to attend his fight with Tyson.

But some traditional boxing fans feel he makes a mockery of the sport, particularly with audacious claims he could beat superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez or by comparing himself to Muhammad Ali.

His decision to fight former heavyweight world champion Tyson, who suffered a stomach ulcer flare-up in the summer, only galvanised his critics.

But how did Paul become such a phenomenon - and how much of what he says should we buy into?

After amassing a social following by posting videos on the now defunct Vine platform and later starring on Disney Channel show Bizaardvark, Paul launched his YouTube channel in 2014.

A decade later, his estimated net worth is around £30.2m. In 2022, Paul featured second in Forbes' list of highest paid YouTube stars and 46th in the athletes category after three pro bouts in the year.

"I'm an entrepreneur, I own six businesses, I box, I do YouTube, I do podcasts, I'm spiritual," Paul tells BBC Sport.

"There are so many layers to my onion and it's all in one. I can be the class clown, crazy entertainer or I can be the super passionate competitor that's going to be world champion one day."

If there were world titles for self-promotion, Paul would be the undisputed champion. Alongside his brother, WWE wrestler and fellow social media star Logan, he has an ability to connect with audiences and profit from it.

So what is the driving force behind his success?

"It starts with unlimited self-belief and the first step to accomplishing something like this is believing that you can and making your dreams come true by actually putting in the work," says Paul, a fan of manifestation.

Paul seems to enjoy ruffling feathers, prioritising clicks over what people think of him.

"My brand has become the comments section, which is full of hate, accusations, lies. It has become all of these things but they don't see the underlying genius in it all, which is that I'm just an entertainer having a blast," he says.

But dig a little further and you will find a more complex individual.

Paul says he extracted "super powers" from trauma suffered by a tough upbringing. His father, Greg, denies ever hitting his sons.

"The super power is the resilience, the hard work, the ambition and all of that stuff," he explains.

"When your parents are hard on you it can create a lack of self love and insecurities. You just have to squash the bad parts and then keep the good parts of trauma."

When Paul says "it's all a game and I'm playing the game better", you get the feeling he is not just referring to boxing.

But controversy follows him just as closely as his vast fanbase.

Paul was dropped from Bizaardvark after neighbours complained of the "living hell" caused by parties and noise at his Californian mansion in 2017.

In June 2020, Paul was arrested during protests following the death of George Floyd, with charges of criminal trespass and unlawful assembly later dropped. Two months later, the FBI were seen carrying firearms out of his house.

There were also allegations of sexual assault in 2021 made by fellow TikTok star Justine Paradise, which Paul denied.

Paul has transitioned into pro boxing at a time when the sport was flagging, with politics preventing the best fighting the best.

After an unlicensed bout against British YouTuber Deji in 2018, Paul saw an opportunity in how his online community were lapping up spats as he transitioned into real-life combat.

He has championed female boxing through his Most Valuable Promotions outfit and increased champion Amanda Serrano's profile. At the 2024 Olympics, Paul partnered with the USA boxing team.

As an athlete, he has shown improvements and dedication, but any reputation he is building is dented when Paul predicts he will knock out Tyson and then call out four-weight world champion Alvarez.

"I'm a bigger name than Canelo globally and because I'm a boxer that makes me the face of boxing. It only makes sense for us to fight," he says.

Many a boxer will walk the fine line between delusion and self-confidence, but you have to question whether he truly believes he can beat Alvarez.

A more likely conclusion is the theatrics that surround boxing - the trash talk and pre-fight hyperbole - complement his talents, and Paul is someone who knows how to make a dollar bill.