Mother of YouTuber-turned-boxer speaks out after son caused family home to be raided by the FBI and a heavily-armed SWAT team.
Jake Paul has proven to be one of boxing’s most divisive figures. Nicknamed ‘The Problem Child’, he has certainly proved to be a problem for many to the integrity of the sport.
After all, this is a man who first became famous by posting videos on Vine before acting on Disney Channel, then amassing an audience on YouTube.
Surely such an individual could make no sort of splash in the world of professional boxing, right?
Right?
Well, you may think so, but you’d be wrong.
Paul’s pre-boxing days are probably as well-documented as his boxing career itself, but it’s his entry into the sport that is the reason most talk about him nowadays.
It is almost six years ago that Paul made his professional debut, stopping fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib in the first round. From there, he knocked out Nate Robinson, a basketball player. He then beat a series of retired MMA fighters who were nowhere near their fighting weight.
These names were recognisable ones. They included Ben Askren, two consecutive bouts with Tyron Woodley, and a 47-year-old Anderson Silva. Great fighters though they were, they simply weren’t boxers.
When Paul eventually fought a professional boxer in the form of Tommy Fury (half-brother of Tyson), he suffered his first defeat. And after putting together a six-fight winning streak over badly faded ex-champions (including a 58-year-old Mike Tyson), some sub-par professionals, and Nate Diaz, Paul made the huge leap to fight former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
As everyone expected, Paul was never going to win, and he was taken out in the sixth round by a right hand that broke his jaw in two places.
But back in 2020, before he was truly boxing’s most disruptive force, Paul’s $8 million California mansion was raided by the FBI and a heavily-armed SWAT team after he was linked to the recent looting of a mall in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Pam Stepnick, mother of Jake Paul and his brother Logan, spoke of the incident in her recent book “F** the Pauls: Written by Their Mother”. In her recounting of the event, she claimed, “I ran out of my dermatologist appointment and sank to the floor in the building’s stairwell. My heart was racing.”
Many items were confiscated from the home during the investigation, but ultimately, all charges were dropped and there were no arrests made.
The happenings served as somewhat of a wake-up call for her son, in Stepnick’s opinion, as she claimed, “This series of events caused Jake to take stock of his life. Finally, he had to course-correct.”
With titanium plates fitted into his jaw following his knockout loss to Joshua just over a month ago, it’s fair to say that Paul will be taking a lengthy break from boxing. But whatever he does next, he’ll have plenty of eyes begrudgingly trained right on him.
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