Plenty of hardcore boxing fans will claim they’re not interested in Friday’s eight-round showdown between Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul such is the implausibility of it resembling a real fight.
The thinking goes that Paul is merely a fish out of water, one flip-flopping his way through boxing, and one who should have no business sharing airspace with a two-time heavyweight champion who has fought a who’s who of quality big men. Thus, predictions on the outcome go something like this: Either Joshua flattens Paul and throws what remains of the imposter back into the water to conclude a grisly and ill-conceived slaughter, or worse, there’s already been some kind of secret handshake that ensures Paul won’t get hit with the force required to be flattened and this whole circus act endures for the full duration.
Both are perfectly reasonable scenarios to consider. To the untrained eye, it’s feasible that Joshua, after a long hiatus following a damaging loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, would accept the gazillions on offer to shift some rust, speak some trash, bank some rounds, and barely wave a fist in anger. For those who have spent time with Joshua since he won Olympic gold in 2012, however, it’s impossible to believe. A fiercely proud, studious, and uber-rich man, Joshua would surely not accept an assignment that could ultimately damage a legacy he has built meticulously, even for all the money in the world.
He's long been financially secure, after all. Though cash is an unquestionable driver, more money isn’t going to improve his current existence one iota. But being the first to legitimize Paul, by permitting him to last the distance or even to just appear competitive, would draw criticism so loud and so enduring it would unquestionably darken Joshua’s mind. The Englishman, don’t forget, is a thinker. He’s someone who values both his own reputation and how he’ll be remembered. More so, in the here and now, he will care how true fighting comrades like Artur Beterbiev, Canelo Alvarez and Oleksandr Usyk – those who have long wanted to teach Paul a lesson – will then view him if he fails to. So, to suggest that Joshua’s integrity can be bought, particularly in a fight that will be witnessed on Netflix by more people who’ve witnessed him fighting before, is unlikely at best.
Not so fanciful is the other possibility: The ugly thrashing. Many are expressing fear for Paul to the extent that, when faced with the might of someone like Joshua for the first time, he’ll be putting his life in danger. Those painting the gravest of pictures are likely doing so while imagining the Anthony Joshua of 2017 letting rip on the Jake Paul who turned professional three years later. Neither, thankfully, are the same anymore.
Though an early savaging is far likelier than a distance fight, Joshua surely won’t answer the opening bell like an African buffalo who’s just had a frozen pea catapulted into his backside, nor will Paul stand glued to the floor with his eyes screwed up in panic. Joshua, for all the awareness of his opponent’s limitations, will exhibit enough care in his approach to stop Paul from trying his luck on the counter and, similarly, Paul will know the worst thing he can do is curl himself into a ball and wait for the shellacking to cease.
Paul, 12-1 (7 KOs), has been working on his latest craft for six years. Now 28 years old, he’s improved a lot – as one would expect, frankly, given the amount of time and money at his disposal. He’s at his physical peak, never been in a hard fight, barely taken the kind of punches that leave lasting damage and, since that farcical debut in 2020, his ego has been fed and nurtured to the point he believes he will stand at least half a chance inside Miami’s Kaseya Center.
But to confuse the faith he has in himself with stupidity would be wrong. Every step of his fighting journey has been taken carefully and with good reason: Paul is here, not to take over, but to tease the ease with which he arrived. He will know that all he needs to do to come out of this journey as a winner, at least in the eyes of his fans, is to answer the first bell. Once that occurs, Paul will go from a YouTuber to a fighter, one who dared to face some of the most dangerous fists of the current boxing era. Nobody will be able to question his heart again. But he will undoubtedly hope for more.
And, for more than merely being there to occur, all that’s really required is one moment; one reel; one meme. Whether it’s a punch he lands or survives, an act of showboating at a safe distance, or a mere chuckle captured from the right angle as Joshua approaches, it will serve social media, his very own ego allotment, with video evidence of Jake Paul ‘competing’ with Anthony Joshua. It will be there, this validity, for the world to see and there, this manipulated truth, for Paul to dine out on for the rest of his days. So, though one shouldn’t doubt that Paul has trained harder than ever before, whether the end goal of that preparation is victory, survival, or merely just to pose for a selfie, remains to be seen.
The pressure, therefore, is all on Joshua. To set the traps, to catch his prey, to ignore the voices in his head if one round becomes two, and three rounds becomes four. Joshua, 28-4 (25 KOs), is no longer the instinctive assassin of old and might start to grow frustrated if the herky-jerky and surely safety-conscious Paul proves tricky to harness. But other than for the most fleeting of jiffies, this will be straightforward for Joshua, who, even at 36, is a whole mountain above his opponent and, while wearing 10oz gloves, he could well administer the pasting that the bloodthirsty crave. A fight, then, like the myriad others we’ve seen over the years that pits a very good fighter with a mediocre rival. A fight, in fact, that Paul has long promised would come and a beating, therefore, that’s always been in the post.
Credit to Paul for keeping that promise and making it this far. Fish out of water he might still be, but don’t discount the arms and legs he’s grown since he’s been here. Already, they’ve made him the A-side in an event against a colossus like Anthony Joshua and, one suspects, they’ll serve him just well enough to survive a round, maybe even two, before order is restored.
