Jake Paul earned $93 million his last fight against top boxer Anthony Joshua, despite losing. Alex Honnold, known for the Academy Award winning “Free Solo” and being widely regarded as the best professional climber, earned ~$500,000 for climbing Taipei 101, which was streamed on Netflix.

Paul made 186x Honnold: his company owns the promotion, organized the fight, and negotiated the Netflix deal, so he earns as fighter, promoter, and executive. When Paul walks away, there is no more event. It comes down to leverage.

Honnold showed up as talent-for-hire; only one revenue stream, no promotional equity, and only earning backend from a producer credit.

As a boxer and experience entrepreneur, Paul would never fight for free, but in Honnold’s case: “I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m climbing the building for free. I’m getting paid for the spectacle.” Though the sentiment is fair, it means he has no leverage.

The difference for Netflix: boxing already had a massive global audience, PPV infrastructure, and proven demand, therefore they are just buying access to an existing market.

Pro climbing itself has no global audience, no history of PPV, and thus no proof that anyone would watch the live event.

Netflix built the stage, marketed the event, and put climbing in front of the same hundreds of millions of subscribers who watched Paul fight, taking a bet on Honnold and his “Free Solo” reputation.

And it worked:

Honnold free solo climbing Taipei 101 proved he can command a global audience, ultimately giving his negotiating position a complete boost.

Honnold told the New York Times he was being paid “an embarrassing amount,” leading the interviewer to guess $10 million, which he denied.

Celebrity Net Worth landed on approximately $500,000 as the base Netflix payment. Honnold holds executive producer credits, adding around $50-150K and bringing his total to around $500-750K.

After the success with Taipei 101, Honnold has gained leverage in the public eye, and the ownership he obtains from his next big event will multiply.

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