Former WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith admits any fighter would want to take on Jake Paul.
Billam-Smith has boxed once in 2025, defeating Brandon Glanton in April, but he will be in Miami to see Paul face Anthony Joshua as a gym-mate of lightweight star Caroline Dubois, who makes her MVP debut on the bill.
Joshua clearly sees the fight as an eight-round run-out before taking stiffer challenges in 2026, but many are far more cynical and still angered and frustrated by Paul’s ability to lure big-name boxers into fights.
Billam-Smith, from Bournemouth, England, is ranked No. 8 by the WBA. Paul is their No. 14. It means a fight between them is not beyond the realms of possibility, should Paul drop back down in weight after the Joshua experiment.
“It’s a [Florida] commission fight so there can’t be any sort of agreement on the exhibition like an exhibition might have an agreement,” Billam-Smith said of the bout that’s been hashtagged Jake and Joshua. “I just can’t see how it goes any other way other than Joshua inside a round – unless he’s worried about Jay Paul coming out wild and something, he might slightly take his time but I honestly can’t see it if the fight goes past five minutes it’ll be beyond me. I wouldn’t know what to think about it.”
If Joshua does steamroll Paul, the superstar’s best route back to legitimacy will be to fight a leading cruiserweight. That is something Billam-Smith is open to.
“I have no issue with Jake Paul and what he’s trying to do and stuff like that, and I think if people, you know, don’t think he should be ranked or whatever, that’s not his fault. That’s on boxing. He’s filling a void, basically. He’s filling up a gap in the market which someone else isn’t and whether that’s me, whether that’s other boxers, whatever, he’s filling a gap. We live in an attention environment, that’s what the world is about right now. And he’s very very good at what he does at his job – of marketing and branding and all that. So, yeah, no fighter is going to turn down a fight with that and that money because why would you? It doesn’t make sense. That’s why, if anyone’s got an issue with Anthony Joshua, I understand the sort of integrity part of it but you’re in boxing and the amount of grief people give boxers anyway, why shouldn’t he take the most money for what should be the easiest fight of his career. I don’t understand how you can’t have an issue with Anthony Joshua for that. You can’t have an issue with Jake Paul for creating that sort of money.
"People always ask me ‘Are you annoyed that you’re not getting the same sort of level of money or audiences?’ No, because that’s my own fault. I haven’t worked as hard as he has on social media on YouTube and all those things in the social world. So why should I be annoyed at him? I should be annoyed at myself. If I’m annoyed at the situation, I have to be annoyed at myself for not doing that. I think that’s what a lot of people tend to do. I think they almost get annoyed at him, but really they’re annoyed at themselves. It’s more of an internal thing, but I think it is wild and I think that that Jake Paul fight could easily happen with me. Do I think he’d want it? Do I think I currently bring enough eyes to him? Probably not right now, but who knows. Never say never.”
