“AJ won’t carry him,” said Conor Benn, asked what might happen when Anthony Joshua meets Jake Paul in Florida on Friday.
“I don’t feel like that’s in AJ’s makeup or DNA, or who he is as a man, as a character, but I don’t think it will be early. It could be first half still… it’s so hard for me to say because I feel like it’s going against everything that my heart’s telling me, but my head’s telling me, I don’t even know, it got me messed up. But there’s obviously something that we’re missing. “Because I look at Jake Paul and I go, he’s a smart guy, obviously, it’s evident in business and in understanding commercial value and understanding marketing and understanding how the boxing game works and its demographic. For him to then just go on and fight the heavyweight champion with no substance or his confidence must come from somewhere.
“I’m sitting there going, well, I must be missing something. But then in the same breath, I’m going, well, I feel like I’d beat Jake Paul. So if I beat Jake Paul, how does AJ not beat Jake Paul? And how does he not beat him early? Yeah, I know, but then I'm sitting there going, well, I must be missing something, because he’s a smart guy.”
Asked whether Paul wanting a viral moment, a knockout, was part of an over-reaching commercial strategy, Benn answered: “He just can’t be that dumb. He’s not dumb. But then I feel like it’s all reward, no risk. And I feel like he loves that. I feel like he can’t really lose this. He’s fighting the two-time heavyweight champion of the world, former heavyweight champion of the world. The face of boxing, the trendsetter, game-changer, GOAT of British boxing who resurrected it. What’s the worst that can happen? Get knocked out. But then also, I'm also thinking he doesn't strike me as a sort of guy that would be willing to put himself on the line like that.”
