Jake Paul may not be the most popular person in the world but nobody can knock his business savvy.

While most fighters are struggling to pay their bills when turning professional, the 27-year-old Ohio native was raking in multi-millions for his first three fights in the sport. It was actually after he met former UFC chief financial officer Nakisa Bidarian — who ended up as his partner in Most Valuable Promotions — that he found out his true worth as a combat sports athlete.

“I saw a unique opportunity to create a direct-to-consumer relationship within fight sports,” Bidarian told The Hollywood Reporter about his plans for Paul after the pair first met.

Bidarian went onto produce the pay-per-view card that featured Paul’s next opponent Mike Tyson in an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. The event also featured Paul taking on former NBA star Nate Robinson on the undercard.

Appearing on the Tyson card was a calculated maneuver with Bidirian revealing that Paul ended up making $1 million for the fight — six times less than what he made for his professional debut against fellow social media influencer AnEsonGib.

The gamble paid off.

“I said, ‘Listen, this is what makes sense for this event, but I promise you, if you perform well, your next payday will be at least eight figures,’” Bidarian said. “We turned that into an over $10 million guarantee for his next fight [against Ben Askren].”

The hefty paydays were obviously nice, but Bidarian says that was just a very small piece to a much bigger puzzle that he was building after he started working with Paul.

Recognizing Paul’s appeal to a younger audience — an audience that had largely drifted away from boxing and started paying more attention to MMA through organizations like the UFC — Bidarian seized on the opening.

“Jake’s and my focus has been generating interest in Gen Z and Gen Alpha in the sport of boxing,” Bidarian said.. “And if you look at all the statistics, boxing is one of the fastest growing sports for Gen Alpha, by far. Jake’s had a large part to play in that. If you ask a lot of kids — age 6 to 16 — who’s the best boxer in the world, their answer is Jake Paul.”

As for his upcoming fight against Tyson on Nov. 15., Paul predicted viewership figures around 25 million thanks to the event airing on Netflix without a pay-per-view price attached with the streamer currently boasting over 270 million subscribers worldwide.

During a pre-fight press conference to promote the fight, Paul let it slip how much he’s making to face the former heavyweight boxing champion who turned 58 in June.

“I’m here to make 40 million dollars and knock out a legend,” Paul said in August.

Considering the gaudy figures just around those four fights, Paul’s next business venture doesn’t sound all that crazy.

While his focus remains boxing and continuing to build Most Valuable Promotions, Paul hopes to one day own an NFL team — just not his hometown Cleveland Browns.

“The Browns have a curse — so then I end up drifting to the [Kansas City] Chiefs, Paul said. “Travis Kelce, he’s from Cleveland, so I’m a fan.”

Five of the 12 current WSL teams play in the capital – Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and West Ham – while London City Lionesses moved to Hayes Lane in the summer, home of men’s League Two club Bromley, in the summer.

London City Lionesses have also relocated their training facilities to Aylesford in Kent, and Zubizarreta believes the club’s set-up is worthy of top-tier football.

“If you only invest in players but not staff or facilities it doesn’t make sense. It has to be at the same level,” he said.

“The facilities we have are impressive. The first time I arrived at the training centre, I know all the ones in Spain and it’s much better than even the training centre of Barcelona. Any player can be attracted to this environment.

“We need to put everything in the correct place, but we want to invest and give the first team very good facilities so they can improve, and the correct space for the academy to work with the young girls who at the beginning only want to play football.

“Let’s see if we can bring some of them to the first team.”

Daniel Cormier has mapped out a path for how Alex Pereira can become the greatest UFC fighter of all time.

Pereira has now defended his UFC light heavyweight title three times in the span of seven months, most recently with a brutal fourth-round TKO of Khalil Rountree this past Saturday at UFC 307. Pereira, who also held the UFC middleweight title, now has as many title defenses as Cormier did at 205 pounds.

Cormeir said winning a third UFC title could separate Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) from the pack.

“Pereira is in the conversation for the greatest of all time,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “Not yet quite the greatest, but if he can somehow win a fight at heavyweight, compete for the championship, or continue to defend this belt at light heavyweight, I don’t know that you can even question it.

“This is a man who became the middleweight champ, has defended the light heavyweight championship. He was never a real middleweight, though. He was so big that it’s easy to see how Izzy (Adesanya) got him the second time after he won the belt. …This dude is special. He’s very special.”

Cormier revealed that Pereira and his team contemplated pulling out of the fight after “Poatan” was dealing with a slew of injuries. So with Pereira deciding to fight and putting on a memorable performance, Cormier said the sky is the limit for him now.

“I believe he can do whatever he wants at this point, because he’s got a lot of goodwill with the organization right now,” Cormier said. “Pereira was hurt, too. I was talking to his manager and his coach after the fight, and they said they told the UFC, ‘We’re going to go to Salt Lake, and we’re going to try and train, but we may pull out.’ The UFC said to him, ‘That would suck, but let us know how it goes because we have two title fights, and we’ll elevate one if that’s what we need to do.’

“The goodwill you gain from the organization when you do that is unbelievable. So, if he did go into the offices of Dana, Hunter and those guys, and go, ‘I would like to fight Tom Aspinall for the interim championship’ – those actions that he showed last weekend leads to you receiving those types of opportunities. The world is really his oyster in terms of what he can do next, if he so chooses to try a fight up at heavyweight. But for me, it’s fight Ankalaev. Right now, you’ve got to fight Ankalaev if he gets through Rakic.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

SALT LAKE CITY – Tecia Pennington beat Carla Esparza with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 307 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Take a look inside the fight with Pennington, who sent Esparza into retirement with a loss.

Tecia Pennington def. Carla Esparza

Tecia Pennington

Result: Tecia Pennington def. Carla Esparza via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Updated records: Pennington (14-7 MMA, 10-7 UFC), Esparza (20-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC)
Key stats: Esparza won the overall striking line 116-94, but Pennington’s totals in the significant strikes category doubled up on Esparza at 80-39.

Pennington on the fight’s key moment

Oct 5, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Carla Esparza (red gloves) fights Tecia Pennington (blue gloves) during UFC 307 at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

“I wish I would have struck a little bit more, but I had to listen to my coaches to get the win. I stood back a little bit because I think if I would have gone in more with my punches, she could have gotten a takedown and then held me down and got her win. Wrestling – obviously it’s an MMA fight, but I want to strike with you. The few times she did exchange with me, I was like, ‘Man, let’s go.’ But she’s not into doing that, so I did what I needed to do to win.”

Pennington on the split decision

Oct 5, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Carla Esparza (red gloves) and Tecia Pennington (blue gloves) react after their fight during UFC 307 at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

“Honestly, I was confident until when they said 30-27. That’s when I got worried because I saw it 29-28 – I’m just being honest. I saw her winning the first and me winning the last two, so I thought I had it confident again. But when they said (30-27), I’m like mother … did they do this to me again? But then they called my name and I was happy.”

Pennington on what she wants next

Oct 5, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Tecia Pennington prepares to fight Carla Esparza (not pictured) during UFC 307 at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

“I think I should be No. 9 or 10. I’ve been in this for a long time. I think I deserve to be in the top 10 fighting a top-10 opponent my next fight. I’d love to fight another striker. That’d be awesome, so then we could just bang in there. I’m down to do that. But I truly believe I’m one of the top 10 girls in the world right now. I’ve fought everybody, so it probably would be a rematch. I don’t care (I want to fight) someone who’s going to get me closer to the title. That’s my ultimate goal. I have a few more years at that and I think I can make it there.”

To hear more from Pennington, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.

UFC 307 images

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov may be fierce rivals when it comes to combat sports, but there’s nothing but respect between them outside the ring.

On Tuesday night, Vakhitov scored a first-round knockout on Contender Series but UFC CEO Dana White was on the fence about whether or not to sign him to a contract. After attending the UFC APEX show to watch Vakhitov’s performance, Pereira actually put in a good word for the former GLORY Kickboxing champion and he was signed to a contract.

Following the event, Pereira and Vakhitov ran into each other backstage and chatted through translators.

“To be honest, I’m very happy see you winning,” Vakhitov told Pereira. “I love what’s happening with you right now over here. So just keep doing it, keep winning, I’ll be watching this. I’ll be focused on myself. Hopefully after a few more defenses, it will happen so that we’ll meet each other again.”

(Video courtesy of Vakhitov’s manager Andrey Busygin)

While both fighters were competing in GLORY, Pereira defeated Vakhitov by split decision in their first encounter before the Russian got his revenge with a majority decision in the rematch. That fight served as Pereira’s final appearance in GLORY before signing with the UFC where he’s gone on to become a two-division champion in short order.

After Vakhitov decided to make a full-time transition to MMA, he exchanged more than a few messages with Pereira through interviews and over social media.

No matter what was said, Vakhitov promised it was never anything personal but just about business.

“Nothing but respect,” Vakhitov said. “All love and it’s just sports. That’s all it is.”

The fighters shook hands and shared a hug, with Pereira giving Vakhitov a few parting words with a laugh between everybody involved after he gave his former opponent the extra nod he needed to get into the UFC.

“You owe me one,” Pereira said.

Vakhitov joins the UFC with a 3-1 record in his MMA career with all of his wins coming by first-round knockout.

With captain Seamus Coleman sidelined, Nathan Collins will continue to stand in as skipper.

The Brentford defender took the armband for the closing stages of the England game after Coleman limped off before and retained captaincy duties against Greece.

“I probably didn’t take in the moment as much as I should have, but that’s just the way I am,” Collins, 23, said of deputising for Coleman last month.

“My family did – I think they were crying in the stand. Honestly, it means a lot to me and my family.”

Collins, who has started all seven of Brentford’s Premier League games this season, added: “I think in this camp, it’s really easy being a captain of this team as there are so many leaders. I could go through this team and you could name six or seven boys who would help me out, chip in, talk, motivate, and it makes my job easier.

“We’re missing a few of the older boys, past leaders, and it is time for boys to step up and time for us to start showing our leadership.”