Jake Paul and Nate Diaz gain thousands of new followers following August fight announcement
- Planet Sport writer
- 18 April 2023
Jake Paul and Nate Diaz have seen their follower numbers surge following their summer fight announcement, but which boxer is experiencing the biggest growth in popularity?
Fresh from his maiden boxing defeat, Jake Paul will return to the squared circle on August 5 when he takes on MMA star Nate Diaz.
The DAZN pay-per-view bout is expected to attract millions of eyeballs as Paul looks to bounce back from his loss to Tommy Fury.
At 37, Diaz is significantly older than his opponent, though his fierce reputation in the octagon will certainly cultivate a lot of interest around the bout.
According to research conducted by Betway, both Paul and Diaz saw their follower numbers skyrocket following the fight announcement.
Just 24 hours after the bout was made official, Nate gained 31,808 followers on Instagram. Paul's numbers were boosted by 21,773 new followers during that same period of time.
Those numbers have propelled both men onto the list of the top 20 fighters with fastest growing online presence.
Looking at the yearly stats, Dmitry Bivol has seen the biggest rise in follower numbers. The WBA light-heavyweight champion was well respected by the boxing fraternity, though he truly rose to stardom following his unanimous decision victory over Canelo Alvarez in May 2022.
The Russian has seen a 282% online growth, with 604,000 currently following his Instagram account.
Stephen Fulton Jr and Shakur Stevenson are second and third with an online presence that grew 59% and 52% over the last year.
Jake Paul is 11th on the list with an annual growth of 16%. The American edges the current heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk who sits two spots below with 13% growth.
Canelo, Terence Crawford, Nate Diaz, Logan Paul, Anthony Joshua and Gennady Golovkin close out the top 20.
