Jake Paul’s fan base is filled both with believers and haters.
It’s the latter whom he seems to be playing to by volunteering for boxing’s equivalent of a firing squad in meeting two-time unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua.
“He understands the demands of the character he’s built,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on Tuesday’s edition of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” “The Internet will explode if he gets knocked out.”
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul was due to fight WBA 135lbs beltholder Gervonta “Tank” Davis in a mid-November exhibition. Those plans were scuttled when Davis, 30-0-1 (28 KOs) was ensnared in another domestic-violence episode, which left Paul, 12-1 (7 KOs) to turn to Olympic gold-medalist Joshua, 28-4 (25 KOs).
In addition to defeating long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko as a heavyweight champion, Joshua viciously knocked out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a novelty bout similar to this regulation fight in Miami that will be streamed by Netflix Friday night.
“This is, in a way, a bit of marketing genius on the part of Jake Paul: I’m going to give you the satisfaction of seeing me getting knocked out,” Malignaggi said. “It’ll probably quintuple his amount of views … .”
Paul has spoken of wanting to fight for a cruiserweight belt. Newly crowned WBC champion Noel Mikaelian has said he’d be willing to put his belt on the line against the influencer given the drawing power of Paul.
“Jake Paul is very smart. He’s making so much money on this,” Robert Garcia, the returning Trainer of the Year, said. “Back in the Mike Tyson days, we’d all say,’I’d take $1 million to get knocked out by Tyson in a minute.’
“This guy [Paul] is willing to get knocked out by Anthony Joshua for something like $90 million.”
Mikaelian and former three-division titlist Badou Jack - who lost his WBC 200lbs belt to Mikaelian over the weekend - told BoxingScene last week that Paul needs to display something more than a rapid knockout loss to keep himself in consideration for a title fight.
“He could make it awkward and uncomfortable for A.J. … we’re all talking about it,” Garcia said.
Malignaggi believes there’s no fun-and-games mindset in Joshua, who’s coming off a multi-knockdown loss to recent heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois.
“He has worked with [unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr] Usyk on his team. He’s trying to impress you. He’s not going to do this [preparation] and have a dud,” Malignaggi said. “He takes this shit seriously. He wants momentum for the continuation of his career, on his way to a [later 2026] Tyson Fury fight.
“Jake Paul is a big event for Anthony Joshua: ‘I’ll step on this guy real quick and get on with what I want to do.’ You’ve got to get over him like a blip.”
The fact that Joshua has already destroyed Ngannou provides encouragement to the theory Joshua will dispose of Paul in similarly devastating fashion.
“I see him doing the same thing,” Garcia said. “I expect nothing but a great knockout.”
Malignaggi said Paul might be willing to test Joshua’s chin that has been exposed by Andy Ruiz and Dubois, but doing so requires the great risk of fighting at close quarters.
“You have to have balls to hold your ground and punch with Anthony Joshua,” Malignaggi said. “Joshua punches short and strong. It takes calmness to remain in the pocket, a skill and experience Jake doesn’t have.”
That raises a major question in Malignaggi’s mind.
“Is it better to go for a kamikaze approach and impress boxing fans or run around and impress your YouTubers? Do you want to impress boxing people or the clowns?”
Garcia answered, “I think he will go out on his shield. He might land a couple, make it an exciting fight and last a couple rounds. If he does that, more people will watch him.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
