Finding a New Niche
By Michael Wirth
2021-06-16T04:00:00Z
Despite what many people believe, becoming a social media influencer takes a lot of work. Though building a social media presence often starts as a part time thing, it can quickly escalate into full time work. Finding a niche that marks you as entertaining is helpful, but growing an audience takes a commitment to a regular posting schedule. It can take years for a newbie influencer to grow their numbers into the hundreds of thousands, only managing to hit the millions if they’re lucky.
So, imagine putting all of that work into a social media following just to pivot away from that niche you worked so hard at into something completely different. Such was the case with the Paul brothers, Jake and Logan, when they decided to leverage their fame to launch themselves into the world of boxing.
Knocking Out the Competition
Jake and Logan Paul are two of the most controversial names on YouTube. Both have been mired in bad press numerous times over their careers, but they always seem to come out unscathed. But this bad press probably helped to bring attention their boxing careers, which began in 2018 when the Pauls faced off against another set of YouTube brothers, KSI and Deji. The Jake/Deji fight was billed as the undercard for the main event of Logan/KSI. And though all four men weren’t traditional boxers in a sense, they gave the crowd their money’s worth with Jake beating Deji by TKO and Logan and KSI went to a decision, which was called in a draw.
Since then, the Paul brothers have gone on to more bouts, showing that they take their boxing careers seriously. Many of their bouts are exhibition in nature, with Jake later facing off against a YouTuber (AnEsonGib) and a basketball player (Nate Robinson), but he’d won both matches within six minutes of each fight.
Little by little, the Pauls got more recognition in the boxing community, and they were finally able to land professional bouts. First came Jake’s earlier this year when he faced off against MMA star Ben Askren. Again, Jake came out victorious, but his win was criticized as Askren is an MMA star, which requires a different skill set from that of a boxer.
Logan, on the other hand, managed to score a fight with former world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. The battle took place in June of 2021 and lasted for a full eight rounds. Though no winner was announced, as the fight was purely for exhibition, the stats of the fight would have declared Mayweather the victor. However, after the fight, Mayweather told reporters, "He’s better than I thought he was… he’s a tough, rough competitor,” which helped to validate Logan’s boxing career.
Slap Some Sense Into Them
But the Pauls aren’t the only social media influencers making the pivot into boxing. Recently, Corey B. (full name: Corey Bonalewicz) has shown that he has what it takes to step into the ring. Bonalewicz has over 12 million followers between Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, with his following rising almost daily. At a Celebrity Boxing match in Atlantic City, NJ, between Aaron Carter and Lamar Odom, Bonalewicz approached two-time world champion boxer Paulie Malignaggi as the latter commentated on the fight, slapping the back of his head with chalk. The pair had been at odds when Malignaggi called into the radio show on which Bonalewicz is an on-air personality and called him out as a wannabe. According to Malignaggi, all of the YouTubers and TikTokers trying to become boxers is bad for the sport. But Bonalewicz disagreed, explaining that while he started boxing as a way to get in shape, he decided to take the sport seriously, even going as far as to hire renowned boxing trainer Hector Rocca to help elevate his game.
Despite Malignaggi’s discouragement, Bonalewicz has already been booked for a fight on October 10th with Celebrity Boxing, the same outfit that coordinated the Carter/Odom fight. As of yet, no opponent has been booked to face off against Bonalewicz, but Bonalewicz says he wouldn’t be opposed to fighting Malignaggi.
All in all, success on social media isn’t always an indicator of success in other things, but just like everything else, there are exceptions. And as in the case of Logan and Jake Paul, just because an influencer found success in one industry doesn’t mean they can’t leverage that to success in something else later. By cultivating a following, many social media influencers have the freedom to try new things, and though the public at large may not always accept them in those new roles, that doesn’t mean the influencer’s fanbase won’t. So don’t be afraid to build yourself up in one industry, as it’s always possible to try new things later.