On Saturday morning (Friday night in Texas), Jake Paul went toe-to-toe with boxing legend Mike Tyson for eight rounds in the ring, beating him by unanimous decision. But years before this, Jake Paul’s first claim to fame in mainstream entertainment was as “Dirk”, the not-so-bright live streamer he portrayed in the Disney show Bizaardvark.
As a rookie content creater, Jake Paul tasted fame for the first time on the short-format video platform Vine back in 2013. By 2014, he moved to YouTube, almost as if predicting the fall of Vine in subsequent years. Paul went on to amass a considerable following in lakhs over time, hitting two crore on his channel alone.
However, most kids of the era know him as Dirk Mann or “Dare-Me-Bro” in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, where he played a dumbed-down version of his own online persona till 2017. Bizaardvark starred Madison Hu (who plays Grace in the Netflix series Brothers Sun) and three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo in lead roles, and was quite the rage among children.
Here is a short video clip from Disney’s Bizaardvark featuring Jake Paul as Dirk:
Jake Paul’s Dirk was a fan-favourite of the target audience, as children quickly related to his portrayal of a vlogger on a YouTube-like platform, and his slapstick humour generated quite the laughter. Jake Paul’s brother, Logan Paul, also made a cameo appearance in the show as Dare-Me-Bro’s sibling, Kirk Mann.
However, Disney announced that Jake Paul was leaving the show in the middle of its second season.
It was later revealed by Jake Paul that Disney fired him from the show after multiple reports in the media citing complaints from his neighbours of the massive house he rented in West Hollywood. The neighbours said that they did not approve of his “rowdy lifestyle” and antics. Disney, at the time, was conscious of the public image of its cast in Disney Channel shows aimed at kids.
Jake Paul now flaunts boxing legacy
With the latest win, Jake Paul joins a handful of people in the world to ever beat “Iron Mike” in the ring.
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“The Baddest Man on the Planet” tasted defeat for the first time when he lost his heavyweight title to Buster Douglas, ending his 37-0 run.
After him, four more people defeated Tyson—Evander Holyfield (twice; in 1996, 1997), Lennox Lewis (in 2002), Danny Williams (in 2004), and Kevin McBride (in 2005).
Olympic silver medalist and Dutch speedskater Jutta Leerdam is Jake Paul’s girlfriend. She, in her partner’s podcast BS w/ Jake Paul, voiced her concerns earlier this year about the fight with Mike Tyson, “I think you’re gonna win, but he is the competitor that is the most scary to me.”