Boxing’s most extraordinary plot twist is making Aussie women millionaires

Just a few years ago, Aussie boxer Ebanie Bridges was offered a world title fight.

The purse on offer?

“Maybe five grand, max,” Bridges said in a recent interview with VIP Boxing.

“So this was only four or five years ago, women were getting paid maybe five grand max for a world title fight, if we were lucky.”

The former Sydney school teacher - who’s known as The Blonde Bomber when she dons the gloves - looks back at that now and laughs.

“There was no money in it, so I had to work full time, I was still working as a teacher.”

Bridges once said in an interview with TalkSport, “I don’t even know why I’m boxing, probably because I love hitting people”.

Women’s boxing has changed since the COVID pandemic, and polarising American upstart Jake Paul is at the centre of the revolution.

The former YouTube pretty boy is providing a platform for female fighters that they’ve never had before, and in the process he’s making some of them millionaires.

Bridges is one of three Aussies currently signed to Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) company, alongside Cherneka Johnson and Desley Robinson.

Bridges is a former IBF world bantamweight champion. Johnson is the current undisputed bantamweight champion, and Robinson holds the IBF and WBO world middleweight belts.

While those titles once would not have translated into much of a financial windfall, Paul is making sure the fighters are being paid commensurate to their achievements.

Last year, MVP held a blockbuster all-female card on Netflix which was headlined by the third instalment of Amanda Serrano vs Katie Taylor. The two women split a record purse of $18 million USD that night - about $30m AUD.

On the same card earlier that night, Gold Coast fighter Johnson became undisputed champ by beating Shurretta Metcalf. While she wouldn’t disclose the exact earnings from that fight, she later told Nine.com.au it was “my biggest payday to date”.

“MVP are putting in a lot of effort to try and make it equal and fair and it’s just the start,” she said last August.

The fight not only filled Johnson’s pockets and earned her all the world title belts, but exposed her talents to millions of new viewers on streaming giant Netflix.

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The 31-year-old Queenslander will headline MVP’s next all-female card on August 10 when she defends her belts against former champ Dina Thorslund.

The opportunity might never have happened if not for Paul.

“Jake’s really nice. I think a lot of people give him shit, but I can honestly not say a bad word about him,” Johnson - who was born in New Zealand but moved to Queensland when she was 11 - said of Paul.

“He’s helping boxing... there are haters every place you go but I can’t fault Jake. You can tell how much (MVP) really want to improve women’s boxing.”

Paul founded MVP in 2021 with Nakisa Bidarian, who was formerly right-hand man to UFC boss Dana White.

Unlike the UFC - which is often criticised for how its fighters are compensated - MVP wants to make sure the cash finds it way to the athletes.

Bidarian worked closely with mixed martial arts superstar Ronda Rousey when he was at the UFC and he identified a gap in the market with women’s boxing.

“I’d say it was twofold - one was I had the benefit of being at the UFC during Ronda Rousey’s reign, and seeing a woman be the biggest in their sport, male or female, has only been done one other time - Serena Williams, there was a period when Serena was the biggest name in tennis,” Bidarian tells Nine.com.au in an interview from America.

“The WNBA is huge right now in America, but even the biggest stars - Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese - their fanship is still not at the level of the men in their sport. Ronda was the biggest thing in the sport, bigger than Conor (McGregor) in 2015, and it was tremendous to see.

“So when we started MVP we identified that right away, that that could exist.

“I also noticed all these old staunchy men in boxing, both promoters and media companies, didn’t have their eyes open yet. They didn’t understand what women could do. They didn’t understand that women could fight and sell and put on exciting events.

“So when we brought Amanda Serrano to be the co-main of our first pay per view ever on Showtime, Showtime was a bit sceptical and some of the promoters that were on Showtime were laughing at us.

“Take a look since 2021 since we did our first pay per view. Tell me what other pay per views of scale have had a co-main of women - none. They don’t see it, they don’t understand it, they don’t believe it, they don’t push it. And if you don’t it and don’t give it the platform it’s never going to get the respect of the fans.

“We brought awareness, we pushed the platform of these women the same way we do with the men. That brought opportunity, and with opportunity comes results, and that comes down to the fighters.”

Bidarian speaks glowingly of all three Aussie fighters in the MVP stable, two of whom - Bridges and Robinson - are mothers.

The Iran-born Canadian businessman has his own personal connection to Australia, given his wife is from Adelaide. They are planning another trip to the South Australian capital later this year.

And Bidarian says MVP is hoping to bring an event Down Under before too long - and Paul himself might even fight.

“One hundred per cent, we would love to do an event in Australia,” he said.

“We definitely want to do it, it has to be the right opportunity at the right time. I think Jake (Paul) would love to do an event out there and fight there as well.

“Australia is very close to my heart and I always say it’s the best sports market in the world, bar none.”

An MVP card in Australia would no doubt feature multiple Aussie fighters, and could even be headlined by a Bridges v Johnson bout for the bantamweight belts.

With Johnson being the undisputed champion, it’s likely such a fight would net her seven figures, and it would be highly lucrative for Bridges, too.

Both Bridges and Johnson supplement their boxing income with successful profiles on subscription platform OnlyFans. But while the side hustle was once necessary due to the meagre earnings available in their sport, the women could now live comfortably just from boxing - like the best male fighters have for decades.

Paul is the loudmouth blond who first rose to fame by acting the clown on YouTube.

His own boxing career has been built on dubious bouts against has-beens including the once great Mike Tyson - an event that broke streaming records on Netflix.

So while it’s easy to see why “people give him shit”, as Johnson put it, there are plenty of nice things to be said about the man by those who know him best.

“I met Jake when he was 22 and the first thing he said to me was ‘I want to start a fighters’ union’,” Bidarian says.

“The first thing you need to know about Jake Paul is he’s fighter first, he is content creator first, and he wants to put money back in the pocket of the people who are doing the work and actually risking their lives.

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“Second thing I would say is he’s the most professional boxer in professional boxing. He is always on time, always promoting, always doing the things that need to be done in order to make sure the event is successful, not just for himself but for the other fighters and for the entity.

“And the third thing I would say is he is the most crazy dude who is going to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and make an impact doing it, and I expect him to be back by the end of the year and continuing to disrupt.”

Crazy or not, there is no doubting the positive impact Paul is having on women’s combat sports.