Jake Paul and Logan Paul: What no one’s saying out loud

There’s a reason Logan Paul got paid six or seven figures for stepping into the ring with Floyd Mayweather, and most people who know their boxing history could tell you. But not a whole lot of people are saying it.

I’ll spell it out for you: He’s white.

Logan Paul and his brother Jake Paul are the latest combat freak show to capture the public’s imagination. From wrestlers grappling with bears around the turn of the last century to Muhammad Ali doing an exhibition against a Japanese wrestler to Mike Tyson’s over-50 fight against Roy Jones Jr., boxing fans love (or are at least suckers for) empty spectacle.

But if the Paul brothers are freaks, it’s only because of the color of their skin. Make no mistake, Logan Paul, with his “sterling” boxing record of 0-1, wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the ring with Mayweather if he hadn’t been white. Do you think anyone would have paid a dime to see a Black or Latino dude with a 0-1 record mix it up with Mayweather? If your answer is anything but “no,” ask yourself again.

Mayweather? He doesn’t care about any of this, because he’s laughing all the way to the bank. (His nickname is “Money,” after all.) He made $10 million for this, proving he’s a ringmaster in the tradition of P.T. Barnum: He knows there’s a sucker born every minute. If he can con PPV-heads into paying for this B.S. and make some money off it, hey, why not? It sure is a lot easier than fighting Canelo Alvarez or Manny Pacquiao gain.

Nothing new to see here

White boxing fans have been looking for a “great white hope” ever since Jack Johnson (pictured at the top) won the title from Tommy Burns in 1908 to become the first heavyweight champion who wasn’t white. White boxing fans didn’t like that much, so they tried to recruit white fighters to take him down. Undefeated former champ Jim Jeffries even came out of retirement to try — and got his head handed to him. Jeffries, despite being the challenger, got 60 percent of the purse. When he lost, white fans rioted in response.

Johnson made sure to rub their noses in it, too. He flaunted his wealth and success for the seven years he remained champion (in much the same way Mayweather has flaunted his wealth and success), which made racists hate him even more. Finally, in 1915, he lost his title to the latest white hope, Jess Willard, and he never got a chance to take it back.

In fact, no Black fighter would hold the title again until Joe Louis knocked out Jim Braddock 22 years later. The segregated boxing world had seen what could happen if they gave a Black fighter a chance, and they didn’t want to do that again.

Once it did happen, though, it became obvious that there was big money to be made in the “white hope” game. One great example of that was the 1982 fight between champion Larry Holmes and “Gentleman” Jerry Cooney. That time, the white guy didn’t get paid more than the champ, but he still got $10 million in a 50-50 split.

Holmes called Cooney the Great White Hoax and declared, “If the man was black, he wouldn’t be nowhere. You know it, I know it. Everybody knows it.”

In fairness to Cooney, that wasn’t exactly true. He’d won all 25 of his fights, 22 of them by knockout, and some of his foes were no slouches. He’d knocked out Jimmy Young and Ron Lyle, both of whom put on strong performances against Ali for the title, and he pulverized former champ Ken Norton inside of a round. But Holmes got the better of him when Cooney’s corner threw in the towel in the 13th.

Holmes didn’t deserve the death threats he got leading up to the fight, but Cooney did deserve a shot at the champ.

White dudes to the front of the line

The same can’t be said for Logan Paul, or for that matter, Conor McGregor, but at least the former UFC champion had a combat resume that went beyond a single loss to another guy making his ring debut.

If Logan Paul had come into the fight with Jerry Cooney’s résumé, or Jim Jeffries’, it would be hard to argue that the fight was just about race. But Paul’s résumé wasn’t even padded, it was empty. And Jake Paul’s isn’t much better: He’s won three fights, all by knockout or TKO, but all against non-boxers making their first ring appearance. Oooooh! Impressive!

At least, in Mayweather-Paul, Mayweather got the bigger payday, unlike Johnson or Holmes — which I’m sure he wouldn’t have fought without, so that much has changed. But something else has changed, too. We’re letting people get famous without proving themselves. The Paul brothers are Exhibit A. How many hard-working fighters who’ve paid their dues would have given their eye teeth to get a shot at Mayweather? A whole lot. But the white guy with no credible experience steps to the front of the line.

I’ve never cared for the term “white privilege,” but if this ain’t it, I don’t know what is.

Being an “Instagram influencer” — whatever the hell that even is — shouldn’t qualify you to fight a former champion any more than starring in a reality show should give you the right to do brain surgery. Or be president. But in our modern world of empty fame, it does. If you’ve got pale skin and blond hair, a big mouth , that is. That means you’ll be able to wrangle big money from fans who, subconsciously or otherwise, are still looking for a white hope.

A lot of people, myself included, hoped we were finally getting past racism in America. But police brutality and today’s politics have proved otherwise.

Logan Paul just drove that point home.

It used to be that racist fight fans wanted a “great white hope.” Now they’ll just settle for a not-so-great white guy with no hope.

Stephen H. Provost is a former sports editor who’s written several books about sports, history, and politics, all available on Amazon.