Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul each made an eye-watering £69,000 per second of their fight on Saturday night, it has been revealed.
The unlikely duo went head-to-head in the highly-anticipated bout at Miami’s Kaseya Center, with Joshua unsurprisingly reigning supreme in the sixth round.
Referee Christopher Young called a halt to proceedings after Paul was floored by a right hand from the Brit, who walked away to celebrate as his opponent hit the canvas.
Many had questioned exactly why a two-time heavyweight champion was reducing himself to a fight against a YouTuber-turned-cruiserweight who once lost to Tommy Fury, though the answer was pretty clear.
In agreeing to the Netflix-broadcast scrap, Paul and Joshua are understood to have evenly split a sum of £136m. That means that for every one of the 989 seconds they were in the ring, each boxer earned a remarkable £69,000.
But it’s thought that AJ will take home significantly less than Paul because of his UK residency. According to AceOdds, around 37 per cent of his earnings – £25.6m – will go directly to the IRS.
Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul made an eye-watering £69,000 each per second of their fight in Miami on Saturday night
The unlikely duo went head-to-head in the highly-anticipated bout at the Kaseya Center, with Joshua unsurprisingly reigning supreme in the sixth round
Paul looked in the mood to celebrate his bumper payout as he returned home from Miami
Joshua gave Paul credit while speaking to reporters after his victory, admitting it took him ‘a bit longer than expected’ to stop the American.
‘It wasn’t the best performance,’ he said.
‘The end goal was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and hurt him. That has been the request and that was on my mind. Took a bit longer than expected but the right hand found the destination.
‘Jake Paul has done really well tonight, I want to give him his props. He got up, time and time again. It was difficult in there for him, but he kept on trying to find a way through.
‘You have to give Jake his respect for trying, trying and trying. But he came up against a real fighter tonight that’s had a 15-month lay-off.’
The 36-year-old and his promoter Eddie Hearn also looked ahead to the future, urging Tyson Fury to sign on the dotted line and set-up arguably the biggest fight in British boxing history.
Fury is expected to come out of retirement next year after stepping away from the sport when he suffered a second consecutive loss to Oleksandr Usyk in May 2024.
Hearn said: ‘We want the Tyson Fury fight of course. That’s the fight, the biggest fight.
‘We can do that, by the way, straight away. No interim fights. If Tyson’s ready and AJ is ready, we don’t have to fight in February or March. I think he’s saying eight weeks, 24 hours to sign a contract.’
Before Joshua added: ‘The best promoter in the world has been speaking with Turki [Al-Sheikh], His Excellency, Riyadh Season, and now he’s going to relay those messages and speak to my training team.
‘I’m a strong guy. I want to push on – but the coaches, it’s really up to them, they’re the ones that guide me. Fighters will always fight, coaches are there to guide us.
‘They know what I’ve been through over the x amount of weeks I’ve been with them so it’s up to them to make a decision. They’re going to speak with Eddie, and then hopefully in a week or so, I’ll have some news.’
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Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul earned £69,000 per SECOND of their fight – but AJ is expected to give up a HUGE sum of his fortune