No sport provides the debate, intrigue and controversy quite like boxing and here, we have another event which has captured the sporting world.<\/p>\n
Love it or hate it, Paul vs. Joshua promises to be one of the biggest events of the year.<\/p>\n
Here, ESPN has pulled together the opinions from some of the biggest names in the sport.<\/p>\n
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Anthony JoshuaAnthony Joshua (R) will fight Jake Paul on Friday and said he is in the mood to outshine and hurt his rival.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how to take it easy on an opponent. I just can’t do that. With this fight I know I’m going in there to box and hurt. It has nothing to do with a contract; it’s just my mood.<\/p>\n
“Contractually there is nothing to say what I can and can’t do. My mood is to go in there, box, outclass, outshine and hurt my opponent no matter who it is.”<\/p>\n
Tyson Fury<\/p>\n
“I think it will go the distance,” ex-WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was quoted by talkSPORT.<\/p>\n
“I think it will be a move around and a points job, absolutely.”<\/p>\n
Otto Wallin<\/p>\n
Heavyweight contender Otto Wallin, who has been stopped by Joshua, said: “For Jake Paul, I think it’s pretty dangerous to face Joshua because he hits so incredibly hard.<\/p>\n
“I know that — he hits like no other I’ve ever faced.<\/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
“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.<\/p>\n
“It’s a dangerous sport and [Paul] can get knocked out badly and injured in this match.<\/p>\n
“Joshua hits unbelievably hard, harder than anyone I’ve ever known. Just look at what he did against Francis Ngannou, and he’s bigger and stronger and better than Jake Paul.”<\/p>\n
Oleksandr UsykOleksandr Usyk wants to fight Jake Paul in an MMA fight.\u00a0Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“If Anthony Joshua wants, he can kill this guy. 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. As a fan, I want a Joshua facing [Tyson] Fury. Listen, I will try to help.”<\/p>\n
Deontay Wilder<\/p>\n
“I only know one person that would do what Jake is doing, and that’s it,” former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder was quoted by the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n
“And I’m talking about the weight difference. He is around 215 [pounds] and Joshua is around 250.<\/p>\n
“That is a big difference in weight, especially when you add in Joshua’s experience too. I don’t know anyone else that has taken on that sort of weight difference other than me.<\/p>\n
“I fight guys 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds heavier than me, you know? But I am able to do that. I can’t say the same for Jake Paul.”<\/p>\n
Frank WarrenFrank Warren described the fight as a car crash waiting to happen.\u00a0Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“It’s a big, big moment for him [Paul]. He’s a massive underdog, everyone will think it’s going to be rubber-stamped. It’s got car crash written all over it.<\/p>\n
“People will watch it. It’s a big fight, a fight that will have big viewing figures.<\/p>\n
“He’s [Joshua] taking the money and it’s a safe option. I’d much rather he be in there fighting Moses [Itauma].”<\/p>\n
Moses ItaumaRichard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“Listen, I don’t hate on any man that’s trying to do well. Jake Paul has smashes life. Conquered YouTube, now he’s trying to conquer boxing.<\/p>\n
“Although I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as he thinks, fair play to him.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to be behind him because I like to see a man strive for success. Although I don’t want him beat AJ, I’m going to be behind him for his success story.”<\/p>\n
Lawrence OkolieLawrence Okolie will fight in Africa this week.\u00a0James Chance\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“I’m not going to sit here and pretend that it’s not a crazy difference in size, skill, all different ways. But you know what, crazier things have happened. So, we’ll see.<\/p>\n
“From what I’ve gathered from AJ I don’t think he’s going to go hit him with a massive right hand and end it in 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
“I do think though if Jake Paul starts touching him it will be like ‘OK’ [Joshua knockout].<\/p>\n
“He hasn’t been in the ring for a while maybe he’s going to use it as an exercise. If Jake Paul clips him and doesn’t take him out with the first time, he hits him hard, that’s when I think it’s going to get interesting.<\/p>\n
“But crazier things have happened, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
David AdeleyeDavid Adeleye has no issues with the event and understands Joshua’s reasons for taking it.\u00a0Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“Big money. Big money. What can we say? Look, if they offered you the Jake Paul fight, would you take it?<\/p>\n
“So there we are. You’re no different to AJ. Just hungry. You trying to get to the bag, feed his family. So look, it’s good for boxing. Everyone’s going to be watching.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be interesting. Look, I’m a fan of the sport. When certain things get made, sometimes I’ll sit back and watch it.<\/p>\n
“It’s funny you go back years. Muhammad Ali was doing exhibitions when nobody was doing exhibitions. Obviously AJ’s doing his now. Tyson Fury done his with [Francis] Ngannou, AJ jumped on the bandwagon and now AJ’s doing this.”<\/p>\n
Tony Bellew<\/p>\n
“[Paul] is sparring Lawrence Okolie, and he’s sparring how many other heavyweights that are in his camp,” Tony Bellew told the Froch On Fighting podcast. “And I’m just like, Okay, that’s great. With 16oz gloves on, maybe 20 oz gloves and head guards…<\/p>\n
“He will not have ever felt anything like it when [Joshua] touches him for the first time with 10oz gloves on, and trust me, he’s in for a rude awakening.”<\/p>\n
Callum SimpsonCallum Simpson returns to the ring on Saturday.\u00a0Ben Roberts Photo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“I think it will be an easy night’s work for AJ, but I don’t think it will be as easy as a lot of people think, in terms of how quick he will knock him out because as a boxer you see all the time, even when there’s journeymen, if you can inbox, if you want to go on the back foot and survive, it can be very difficult to knock somebody out.<\/p>\n
“So it depends on what Jake’s wanting to do. If Jake’s wanting to actually come and engage in a fight, he’s getting knocked out. But if he’s coming to survive, I think he’ll do better at surviving.<\/p>\n
And I think it may surprise people, not that I think he’ll win, but I think Joshua might not look as good as everyone’s expecting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec 16, 2025, 03:11 AM ET Jake Paul will take on Anthony Joshua on Friday night in Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-351412","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\/351412","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=351412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}