{"id":340778,"date":"2025-12-11T02:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340778\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T02:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:55:12","slug":"anthony-joshua-v-jake-paul-shouldnt-go-ahead-says-conor-mcgregor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340778\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua v Jake Paul ‘shouldn’t go ahead’ says Conor McGregor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake Paul’s<\/a> safety has continued to dominate the narrative around his bout with Anthony Joshua after combat sports icon Conor McGregor becoming the latest high-profile figure to express concern for the Youtuber-turned-boxer.<\/p>\n

Paul steps into the ring against Joshua on December 20 (AEDT) which is due to take place over eight three-minute rounds in Miami.<\/p>\n

Many in the boxing world have wondered out loud how the Paul-Joshua bout was made.<\/p>\n

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Paul, with a 12-1 record five years into his boxing career, is usually accustomed to fighting retired UFC fighters or champions well past their prime.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jake Paul\u00a0Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, Joshua’s aura of invincibility is long gone following consecutive losses to reigning heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022, and in a fifth-round knockout loss against fellow Englishman Daniel Dubois last year.<\/p>\n

While his chin is highly questionable, Joshua’s (28-4, 25 KOs) punching power can’t be denied, with 25 of his 28 professional victories have coming via knockout.<\/p>\n

“If he makes that walk, you gotta give him his respect for that,” former two-division UFC champion McGregor told TMZ this week.<\/p>\n

“It’s very dangerous. It seems like Netflix are all over him. It’s a dangerous sport. And you can’t overlook that.<\/p>\n

“Joshua’s a big boy and a powerhouse. I’ve sat ringside and watched Joshua. That’s a heavy-punching man. He’s a happy, good guy, but he has an anger in him.<\/p>\n

“He has a darkness in him does Anthony Joshua. I don’t think a lot of people see that. The fight shouldn’t go ahead in my opinion.<\/p>\n

“But if he does it, I’ll give him his respect for that.”<\/p>\n

Current heavyweight champion Usyk also warned Paul about the dynamics at play.<\/p>\n

“If Anthony Joshua wants, he can kill this guy,” Usyk said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Joshua’s size advantage on show.\u00a0Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“Joshua is an Olympic champion. Jake Paul, he’s a sportsman, YouTube…showman. Rolls Royce…Fiat. Listen, it’s true. It’s business, more money. Only this.<\/p>\n

“I will pray for Jake Paul because I want a fight with him in the octagon.<\/p>\n

“As a fan, I want a Joshua facing [Tyson] Fury. Listen, I will try to help.”<\/p>\n

Usyk has helped Joshua prepare for the fight at his training base in Spain and will likely lend a hand to the Brit for his potential fight with Tyson Fury in 2026.<\/p>\n

Swedish heavyweight Otto Wallin, who has faced Joshua three times, twice as an amateur and once as a pro, does not have fond memories of facing Joshua.<\/p>\n

He told Reuters the British boxer is the hardest hitter he has ever faced, with Wallin’s corner calling a stop to their fight in 2023 after five rounds, leaving the big Swede with some painful memories.<\/p>\n

“For Jake Paul, I think it’s pretty dangerous to face Joshua because he hits so incredibly hard. I know that – he hits like no other I’ve ever faced,” Wallin said, a note of incredulity in his voice that the fight was taking place at all.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why Jake Paul is taking this fight – they must be seriously underestimating Joshua, but I don’t think I’ll believe the fight is happening until they’re actually in the ring.”<\/p>\n

For Wallin, who built his reputation with a tremendous display of courage to take Tyson Fury the distance in Las Vegas in 2019, the match-up is a handy one for Joshua.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A beat up Otto Wallin after his defeat to Joshua.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He’s facing a cruiserweight that isn’t that good. It should be just a simple win for Joshua, and he’ll make a lot of money from it. It’s a dangerous sport and he (Paul) can get knocked out badly and injured in this match,” he said.<\/p>\n

Though he absorbed a lot of heavy blows from Fury in their epic contest, Wallin says there is no doubt that “AJ” is far more dangerous, and he points to Joshua’s second-round KO of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou as evidence.<\/p>\n

“Joshua hits unbelievably hard, harder than anyone I’ve ever known. Just look at what he did against Ngannou, and he’s bigger and stronger and better than Jake Paul,” he said.<\/p>\n

Though many in the boxing world have looked down on “influencer boxers” such as Paul, Wallin has spoken positively in the past about how they are attracting a new audience to the sport, but he is doubtful that Paul has even the slightest chance against a former world champion.<\/p>\n

“I think that Joshua wins pretty easily and pretty quickly – he knocked out Ngannou in two rounds, and Jake Paul won’t take that long either,” he said.<\/p>\n

– with Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Paul’s safety has continued to dominate the narrative around his bout with Anthony Joshua after combat sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-340778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}