Friday night, Jake Paul will face off against Anthony Joshua in a boxing bout that will be broadcast on Netflix.
But, it’s not just a big event for the social media star-turned-boxer. Bushwick-based fashion designer Benny Goldberg, 25, will also be in the ring — in a sense.
He designed Paul’s wild, Hulk Hogan-inspired look for the fight, which is forecast to draw 50 to 55 million viewers.
“To be able to share that work on such a big stage, for such a big audience, that’s what you dream of,” Goldberg told The Post.
Jake Paul knew what he wanted in his fight outfit: Alligator skin, rattlesnake skin and an all-encompassing homage to one of combat sports all-time greats — his old friend Hogan, who passed away earlier this year.
Paul brought his ideas to Goldberg this past September. At that point, the look was going to be for a November fight against Gervonta Davis, the undefeated lightweight champion. Goldberg would have just eight weeks to make the elaborate getup.
“It was going to change my whole life.” said Goldberg, who received the inquiry while on a flight home to Michigan.
He finished the outfit — a matching set of shorts, jacket, boots and sunglasses — in time for the big event. Then, at the last minute, the fight was scrapped after Davis’ ex-girlfriend filed a civil suit against him alleging domestic battery.
Now, Paul will don Goldberg’s work in Friday’s fight against Joshua. It’s a dramatic ensemble that pulls no punches.
On the jacket, which will be taken off just before the opening bell, the sleeves feature yellow flames made from skin of an alligator Paul hunted near his ranch in Georgia.
The back of the jacket is festooned with a nameplate in rattlesnake skin. Paul hunted down the snake as well.
For the rest of the outfit, Goldberg scoured New York’s garment district for “super luxe materials” — high-end satin, red and yellow lambskin and leather.
“Hogan was a huge motorcycle rider, so a lot of the design is inspired by vintage Harley and old NWO wrestling jackets,” the designer explained.
In tribute to the Hulk’s iconic sunglasses — yellow Oakley’s — Goldberg collaborated with Robbie Stinchcomb to make a 3D-printed riff on the late wrestler’s eyewear. These, too, will be removed just before fighting commences.
Goldberg and Stinchcomb met at 3rd Space, an exclusive Gen-Z dinner party series, and hit it off. Within weeks, they were trading notes on prototypes.
“Working with [people like Stinchcomb] and these companies in the Garment District opened my eyes to the difference between New York and LA,” said Goldberg, who moved from California to Brooklyn in August 2025. “People here are ready to work. They respect the grind. It’s so much more my energy.”
Goldberg previously led design and production at an LA-based brand, creating the looks Paul wore in bouts against Mike Tyson and Mike Perry.
This commission carries added weight: It is his first major fight outfit since relocating to New York — and the first under his newly launched independent label, First Draft.
Once the project was complete, Paul flew Goldberg and his design team down to Georgia for an in-person presentation.
“I’m usually nervous going into these [sort of meets],” Goldberg said. But Pauls’ reaction erased any doubts.
“He couldn’t believe it — he was ready to fight right then.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
