Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua: A Lump of Coal for your Christmas Stocking or Maybe Not

Among the many faults attributed to Jake Paul, one can now add a new one – the poor fellow suffers from delusions of grandeur. The Problem Child believes he has the tools to upend former Olympic gold medalist and two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Hasn’t Paul seen the tapes of Joshua’s bouts with Charles Martin and Francis Ngannou, two of the most frightful knockouts of recent years?

It was confirmed today (Nov. 17) that AJ will make his second U.S. appearance against Jake Paul on the Friday before Christmas (historically a dead weekend on the boxing calendar) at the 19,600-seat Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. The bout will be contested over 8 three-minute rounds with 10-ounce gloves.

Jake Paul’s most recent fights – against Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr – were contested with 14-ounce gloves, inviting snarky comparisons to pillow fights. The bout with “Iron Mike” was eight, two-minute rounds. Paul’s bout with Chavez Jr was a conventional 10-rounder with three-minute rounds.

Both bouts were sad spectacles. Paul’s bout with the mildewed Tyson was predictably a glorified sparring session with Jake pulling his punches in the late rounds so as not to further taint the legacy of his co-conspirator. His bout with Chavez Jr was booed by the crowd, all of it directed at Chavez Jr who was reluctant to let his hands go and was plainly just there for the payday. At age 39, Chavez Jr, who weighed 213 pounds on the day of the fight after rehydrating, was a shell of the fighter that once held a version of the world middleweight title.

But both bouts were big money-makers, notably Paul vs Tyson which was witnessed by a reported 72,300 at the home of the Dallas Cowboys and became the most-streamed sporting event in history on Netflix. And it’s almost certain that Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, also on Netflix, will attract even more eyeballs. Between them, Jake and AJ have 44.2 million followers on Instagram.

In defense of Jake Paul, he can box more than a little, as Damon Runyon would have phrased it. He’s worked hard to mute his detractors, never pinching pennies to procure the right nutritionists, trainers, and sparring partners to aid him on his quixotic quest. And it’s paid dividends. “Paul [12-1, 7 KOs] has clearly improved since his loss to Tommy Fury [by split decision in his seventh pro fight], showing a crisper jab and higher work-rate,” notes BBC sports journalist Kal Sajad who tempered his observation with the caveat that those improvements were engineered against aging fighters.

Conversely, Anthony Joshua, who turned 36 last month, isn’t the same fighter he was when he scored his signature win, an 11^th-round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium. AJ showed great fortitude in that 2017 megafight, rallying from the brink of defeat in a see-saw thriller, but he hasn’t handled adversity well in recent years.

Prior to his second match with Oleksandr Usyk, Sean Nam wrote that Joshua “is hemmed in by an apparently crippling neurosis. He has no confidence in his chin and that has afflicted his offensive output.” In the same story, published in these pages, this reporter ventured that AJ was gun-shy. If that were true then, that would be truer now after his woeful showing against countryman Daniel Dubois who steamrolled him in September of last year before a massive crowd at Wembley. AJ was on the canvas three times before Dubois put him down for the full count in the first minute of the fifth frame.

In this fight, Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) has more to lose than Jake Paul. If Joshua blows him away, Paul will be lauded for his courage in taking the fight. If Joshua loses, he may think it prudent to return to England wearing a bag over his head, so great would be the whiplash. A defeat would also spoil a long-simmering and lucrative showdown with Tyson Fury. According to various sources, Turki Alalshikh and Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn have held preliminary talks about bringing that fight to fruition next year in Saudi Arabia.

The last time that AJ was in this situation – where a loss to a near-novice would have damaged his reputation beyond repair – he responded with a fast, highlight-reel knockout of Ngannou. Was that an omen of what will happen in Miami on Dec. 19 or will this be another of Jake Paul’s extravagant pratfalls – all sizzle and no steak?

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