Building a female empire with Jake Paul, Netflix & Taylor-Serrano

Britons Chantelle Cameron, Savannah Marshall, Ellie Scotney and Ramla Ali all fight on the undercard of Taylor v Serrano 3

Unified super-bantamweight Ellie Scotney was out of contract with Matchroom, former undisputed super-middleweight champion Savannah Marshall had not fought for two years and Chantelle Cameron was wondering if a new promotional contract with Queensberry could actually deliver the Katie Taylor trilogy.

With three of Britain's premier talents at a crossroads in their careers and Saudi Arabia taking big-time boxing to the desert, there appeared little room for the best of the best in the women's code.

The UK boxing scene was also squeezed, with many of the best all-British fights on stacked undercards in Saudi.

That meant the women's code stagnated, bar a few standout events such as unified world champion Lauren Price's welterweight showdown with British rival Natasha Jonas last March.

After years of steady growth, Cameron says: "I feel like everyone else had given up on women's boxing."

Mulling over their futures, all three women ran into the same man - Jake Paul.

Catford's Scotney was the first to reach out with a message to the American YouTuber-turned-boxer on Instagram.

"I just thought, 'a shy kid gets no sweets and I was a fat kid'," says the 27-year-old on the 5 Live Boxing with Steve Bunce podcast.

"Within three hours I had a phone call with Jake."

Undisputed super-featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner was the first shock signing for the Jake Paul co-founded Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), before Ramla Ali and fellow super-bantamweight Scotney were also announced. MVP had unsuccessfully courted Cameron a year ago, but not this time.

Over the following weeks, the firm headhunted several more stars, signing Marshall, Cameron, Holly Holm and world champions Cherneka Johnson and Dina Thorslund.

Leading the charge behind the scenes was Nakisa Bidarian, MVP's chief executive. But how did they do it? And what does the future hold for the British fighters who have joined them?

'The fights are there to be made again'

Jake Paul co-founded Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) with Nakisa Bidarian

Not long after signing, Scotney was sipping filtered water in a luxury vehicle on her way to meet the MVP team in person for the first time. She had thought she'd need to book a taxi at the airport.

One day she was at a New York Knicks game sitting beside Irish icon Taylor, the next she was doing pads with Amanda Serrano at an open workout before joining her new stablemates at a glamorous news conference for Taylor v Serrano 3.

Money and exposure was a big part of convincing fighters to join MVP. An estimated 50m watched Taylor's light-welterweight title rematch with Serrano on Netflix last November, with the rivals reportedly earning more than £4m each.

"What I liked, which is rare from a promoter, is Nakisa is very transparent," reveals Scotney.

"He was like, 'Ellie this is the Netflix show, not all of them are like this'."

For Bidarian, the pitch was simple - look what MVP did for Puerto Rican Serrano, who went from a couple of thousand dollars per fight to millions in one night.

"We're not fair-weather friends who show up because something is hot, we put muscle behind it," he says.

"They want people who want to be involved in big fights," adds Scotney. "Give you the platform and make the fights with the right amount of money."

Northampton's Cameron feels women's boxing has been left behind in the past 12 months, at least in the UK.

"Fights weren't happening. Jake Paul's come along and signed up all the top girls and the fights are there to be made again," says the 34-year-old, who was previously signed to powerhouse promoters Matchroom and Queensberry.

Bidarian says MVP's ultimate vision is to bring the fastest growing sector of boxing under one promotional roof.

"What we're trying to do is bring together a collection of talent that's never been brought together before, male or female, to enable us to make the best fights possible on a consistent basis under one umbrella," he explains.

Shields v Marshall 2 & Taylor v Cameron 3 - ambitious plans in pipeline

Cameron is 1-1 in her rivalry with Taylor, while Shields beat Marshall in 2022

Bidarian has helped guide Paul's own career incredibly well.

The 28-year-old's ascent has been carefully managed, no more so than his recent win over rapidly declining, but former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

MVP's matchmaking has been astute and it seems no venture or venue is too big for them. Serrano and Taylor continue to prove, however, their power is in their rivalry.

There are a host of options for MVP's new signings. Some of them will be within their control, like Serrano v Baumgardner or Scotney v Johnson 2. Others will be a test of their abilities.

Marshall and Cameron are both targeting revenge against old enemies too in the shape of Claressa Shields and Taylor - bouts that each woman has pursued without joy.

"It's no secret, I want Shields," admits Hartlepool's Marshall.

"Absolutely the winner of Savannah and Shadasia [Green] should fight Claressa next," adds Bidarian. "I know Claressa likes big events and I'm confident we can make that happen."

He also admits Serrano is unlikely to stay at light-welterweight were she to beat Taylor and claim the titles the 39-year-old Irishwoman took from Cameron.

"If Taylor wins, we will look to work with her to make the trilogy with Cameron and try to make it happen at Croke Park," says Bidarian.

It is a challenge for MVP. Shields has continually dismissed a rematch with Marshall and is now at heavyweight. Taylor could even retire this year, with Cameron arguably the most physically demanding contest out there for her.

But MVP did brilliantly to draw Taylor back into the Serrano rivalry two years after their first encounter and delivered massively for her.

A big question is where would these fights, headlined by British women, be staged?

"The UK is unequivocally pound-for-pound the best boxing market in the world," says Bidarian.

"We have strategically signed some of the best talent from the UK, as part of our growth strategy and we 100% plan on staging events in the UK over the next 12 months."