Jake Paul says he and his brother Logan are the 'big bad wolves' of YouTube that everyone wants to see fail

• YouTube star Jake Paul has made headlines throughout his career, from engaging in risky stunts for content, to getting fired from a Disney television show, to having a whirlwind six-month marriage with YouTuber Tana Mongeau.
• In an interview with Business Insider, Paul said that he and his older brother, Logan Paul, are collectively seen as YouTube's "big bad wolves" who people are constantly rooting to see fail.
• Jake Paul will soon join the slew of YouTubers, including his brother, who have stepped into the boxing ring. If he wins, Paul says he wants to fight the YouTuber who defeated his brother last year: KSI.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

To the YouTube generation, the Paul surname evokes a certain amount of expectation that it's accompanied by news of viral controversy or outlandish drama.

This kind of reputation has helped establish Jake and Logan Paul as "the big bad wolves" of YouTube, the younger Paul brother, Jake, told Business Insider in a recent interview. To him, this status means the brothers are constantly facing an upward battle in their career pursuits, which have expanded into music production and amateur boxing.

"The Paul family is sort of notorious," Jake Paul told Business Insider. "Everyone wants to see the big bad wolves fall."

At 22 and 24, respectively, Jake and Logan Paul are already viewed as veterans of the creator space. While they rose to fame on Vine, an app that no longer even exists, younger and younger kids are emerging in the industry from the likes of TikTok and Instagram. Their nearly 10 years in the limelight has been marred with a string of controversies that have successfully captured the attention of media and fans, and won't soon be forgotten.

2019 was a particularly wild year for Jake Paul - a large feat, considering past hiccups have seem him accused of turning his neighborhood into a "living hell" and fired from a leading role in a Disney channel show. Paul started dating a fellow YouTuber, Tana Mongeau, not long after both of them had gone through high-profile star-studded breakups. From the beginning, their relationship made headlines and was rumored to be a publicity stunt. Paul and Mongeau publicly dated for a month, then got engaged, and held a wild $500,000 Las Vegas wedding that featured a public brawl - before announcing just a few days into 2020 that they were "taking a break" from their relationship.

"It's best for both of us to be friends. I think it's a weight lifted off our shoulders," Paul told Business Insider. "I'm doing great. I'm doing as happy as ever, and I'm ready to kill 2020."

Moving into 2020, Paul is following in the highly publicized steps of his older brother by trying his hand in the boxing ring - something that YouTubers are turning to in droves. Although Logan Paul's recent bout against YouTuber KSI ended in a contested defeat, it brought him an estimated seven-figure payday.

Jake Paul is scheduled to fight at the end of January against YouTube gamer AnEsonGib exclusively shown on DAZN, the sports-streaming platform behind the production of several recent YouTube boxing matches. In the wake of his brother's loss, Paul vowed to "avenge" his brother, and is already setting his sights on a future battle with KSI.

"[AnEsonGib] is a kid that no one really knows about," Paul said. "This opponent is merely a doormat I'm wiping my shoes on on the path of taking on KSI and knocking him out."

Paul told Business Insider that beyond boxing, he's also working on "a couple films and TV shows." This would be his first foray into television since leaving the Disney Channel series "Bizaardvark" in 2017. While both Paul and Disney have said that his mid-season exit was a mutual decision, there's been much speculation as to whether it had to do with the widely covered complaints at the time that he and his housemates - members of a content creator incubator Paul founded called Team 10 - were turning his neighborhood into a "living hell" with couch-burning parties and troves of screaming fans.

For now, Paul says he's focusing on interests that bring him "happiness and freedom," instead of a lucrative income. This mindset may help to explain why Paul fell in 2019 from Forbes' list of the 10 highest-paid YouTube stars - although his net worth is estimated to stand at around $11.5 million.

"When I was first coming up, it was so cool to have the nice things and cars. But at the end of the day, that stuff doesn't make you happy," Paul said. "When you really get to know the business, you know that these people aren't living the lives they portray. There's only a few people actually succeeding."