Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul faces former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday in a money-spinning made-for-streaming bout that has triggered alarm across the boxing world. Just over a year after his much-derided victory over a 58-year-old Mike Tyson, the 28-year-old American Paul will climb into the ring at Miami’s Kaseya Center to confront a far younger — and vastly more dangerous — opponent in the 36-year-old Joshua.
The Netflix-backed spectacle, which reportedly will see the fighters split a staggering $184 million purse, has drawn fierce criticism, with many questioning why it was sanctioned. The British Board of Control has said it would not have approved the fight on safety grounds. Other fighters have warned that given the gulf in class, physical size, and talent, Paul risks serious injury. For his most recent fight in June, the 6ft 1in (1.85m) Paul tipped the scales at 199.4 pounds (90.4 kilos). Britain’s Joshua, who at 6ft 6in towers above Paul, weighed in at 252.5 pounds for his last outing in 2024.
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Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s long-time promoter, described Friday’s fight as a “catastrophic mismatch” before the contracts had even been signed. Other voices in the boxing world, though, have painted a darker picture, with former world heavyweight champion David Haye warning that the fight could be Paul’s “last day on earth.” Amir Khan, Britain’s former light-welterweight champion, said a crushing victory for Joshua may even have lasting implications for boxing, turning viewers off the recent trend of crossover fights involving internet celebrities like Paul.
“I think this could be the end of YouTubers jumping in with real active fighters,” Khan told the Daily Mail. “Because it only takes one shot. One bad night, one clean shot, and someone can get seriously hurt. We’ve seen the way someone’s whole life can be altered.” Khan believes Paul will have no chance if Joshua makes full use of his physical advantages and superior ringcraft, as he did when inflicting a devastating second-round knockout of novice boxer Francis Ngannou last year.
“AJ can bang,” Khan said. “He’s a former world champion. He’s got power, size, everything. If he lands clean, the damage he can do is scary. Especially when he is landing it on someone like Jake Paul. He’s not capable of taking that sort of power.” Paul, whose limited ring record includes 12 wins and one defeat with seven knockouts, insists he is ready to shock the world while acknowledging his ambitions are “delusional.”
“I like to challenge myself against the best. We’re going to go to war and the best man will win,” Paul said last month. “I have gotten to where I am today because of delusional optimism. It’s delusion until it’s not. It’s got me to where I am today.” Joshua insists he is tackling the fight as seriously as any other. “If I’m gonna be honest, I’m gonna break his face, I’m gonna break his body up, I’m gonna stomp all over him,” Joshua said.
That gruesome scenario is precisely what some analysts fear. Michael Bisping, the UFC hall-of-famer and combat sports commentator, has dismissed any chance of Paul springing a David v Goliath type upset. “There’s no way on this Earth that this fight ends with Jake Paul knocking out Anthony Joshua,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “(Joshua’s) got way more experience. He hits harder. He’s the bigger man. He’s got the longer reach. He’s an Olympic champion. Jake Paul is not going to go out there and turn this into a real life David and Goliath. That ain’t going to happen, and everybody knows that.”
Bisping warned that if Joshua’s pledge to approach the fight seriously carries weight, Paul could be in peril. “If this is a real fight — and apparently it is, so we’ll go with that — there’s a very good chance that somebody gets hurt, and I’m sorry to say it ain’t going to be Anthony Joshua,” Bisping said. “Joshua has been in there with the best of the best. (In) boxing, people die. This is not a game. You don’t play at boxing.”
© 2024 AFP
