‘Laughing stock’: Anthony Joshua’s £140m bout with Jake Paul

YouTuber Jake Paul will go toe-to-toe with Britain’s former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in Miami next month in a bout that promoters have billed as the “most dangerous” contest of the influencer’s boxing career.

Joshua, 36, will be “the first active, elite-level champion” that Paul has faced in the ring, said the BBC, and there are already serious concerns about his safety.

Defying belief 

This will be Paul’s “14th fight since turning pro five years ago – with the 28-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer having won all but one so far”, said The Sun. But taking on Joshua is a “whole different kettle of fish”.

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The two-time world heavyweight champion has agreed to shed several pounds to meet the agreed weight limit of 245lb (17st 7lb) for the 19 December bout. But Joshua is five inches taller and around four stones heavier than his cruiserweight rival. Boxing fans are already “worried” about Paul’s chances of “actually surviving the fight”.

In the UK such a match-up would be “banned” because of the “serious safety fears”, said The Telegraph. This “shocking” plan “defies belief” and “breaks so many codes for the sport”. Joshua “is too big, too strong, too experienced and – genuinely – too dangerous for Paul even to think about fighting”; this is nothing more than a “money heist”. It is being billed as a £140 million fight, with Joshua reportedly set to earn more than £30 million from the Netflix-streamed event.

Paul has “always had delusions of grandeur as a novice pro”, said The Guardian, but boxing “may have to consider its own culpability” should he be “badly hurt and end up in hospital” after this “fully sanctioned bout”. But “the suspicion remains” that it will “be a more controlled arrangement”. That “gut reaction” is confirmed by the fact that the fight has been limited to eight rounds.

‘Laughing stock’

Behind the “initial shock” of the apparent mismatch, the two fighters have more in common than it may appear in that both “have found themselves at a crossroads”, said the Daily Mail. Paul has been “on the search for a more credible opponent” after his bout with WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis was cancelled, while Joshua “will be looking to shake off 13 months of ring-rust”.

Joshua has put himself in a “no-win situation” by accepting the challenge, said former world champion Johnny Nelson on Sky Sports. If Paul “lasts the distance, what does that tell you” about Joshua? But if he “goes in there and knocks him out, then you would say that’s to be expected”.

Boxing’s credibility has already “taken a hit because of difficulties arranging fights at the highest level” and an “influx” of cash from Saudi Arabia, said the BBC. For some, influencer fights represent an avenue to “attract new fans” and help “safeguard the future of the sport”, but “others argue they render it a laughing stock”.

If and when the pair do come face to face, Joshua “surely wipes Paul out in a flash”, said Boxing 24/7. “If not, well, the boxing world will have officially gone mad!” This is “what we’re afraid of” – the sport “becoming more and more a circus”.