This evening I was reading a report suggesting there could be a fight being lined up between Anthony Joshua (AJ) and Jake Paul. AJ has not been active since his last defeat in September last year when he was stopped in the 7th round to British boxer Daniel Dubois.
The problem AJ has is his glass chin and everyone in the boxing world knows he cannot take a punch. Eddie Hearn is AJ's promoter who has come out and said if this is a proper fight and not an exhibition fight then they will definitely want the fight to go ahead.
Money talks and for the 8 round fight AJ's purse will be somewhere between $60-$80 million which is why the fight will probably happen. This would be regarded as a warm up fight and they do not require 10 or 12 rounds. Hearn admitted getting the fight sanctioned will not be a problem if there is big money being paid as those in the powers of boxing do love money.
Years ago this would be illegal as the boxing board of control have to weigh up the risks to each fighter and lets face it Jake Paul is not really a boxer. A social media influencer who likes to think he can box even though all his previous fights have been exhibition fights bound by contracts not allowing himself to be knocked out. The Tyson fight was a good example as Tyson unleashed a punch which was not in the script and was reminded during the fight of the contract. We all know Tyson even being close to pensionable age would have knocked him out if allowed.
This fight according to Hearn would be different with both fighters wearing 10oz gloves and not the puffy sparring boxing gloves used in Paul's previous fights. If Paul had a strong punch I would say he had a fair crack at beating AJ, but he is kind of short with a disadvantage in the reach department. The tale of the tape is massively in AJ's advantage with weight, height, experience and reach on his side.
Hearn believes this fight could be an undercard fight on another fight card pre Christmas and sees this as a quick pay day. The problem with Paul is he is more of a middle weight and even fighting AJ who is not exactly a top boxer AJ has been a heavy weight world champion twice. AJ is on the slide these days and turned down a contract being World Heavy Weight Champion Usyk's sparring partner. The power from a professional heavy weight fighter could seriously injure Paul even though I do not think he has much upstairs to damage. AJ wants the British Heavy Weight title back and is hoping to fight Fury next year. After that I would suggest he may want another crack at the World Champion Heavyweight belt if he wins against Fury otherwise he has to retire.
The social media fights have harmed boxing due to the amount of money they have generated through fake fights. Paul has taken advantage of retired boxers like Tyson who had no money and was that desperate for one last big pay day. AJ and promoter Hearn love money ,but they will not risk a farce as they have their reputations to lose. If AJ lost to Paul he would be the laughing stock of World boxing and his career would be over instantly. I do not see this happening and is just Paul self promoting himself having his name mentioned with top heavy weight boxers even if they are in the twilight of their careers. This is not a fight I would watch even if it was for free and AJ would be stupid to even take the fight on.
