![\"WARREN](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-aj-fury_7110997.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnthony Joshua and Jake Paul traded heated words at the final press conference ahead of their fight in Miami as the Briton is ‘carrying boxing on my back’.<\/p>\n
Britain’s two-time world heavyweight champion had a verbal exchange with the YouTube star and shared an intense face-off before their fight at Kaseya Center in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time.<\/p>\n
Joshua is returning to the ring for the first time since a knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2025 and insisted this isn’t his “biggest payday”, while Paul is having his 14th boxing bout following a points win over former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in June.<\/p>\n
“With [Francis] Ngannou, I remember he beat up Tyson Fury over 10 rounds and somehow Fury got the decision,” Joshua said.<\/p>\n
“When I fought Ngannou, I knew there was a lot riding on it.<\/p>\n
“With this one it feels like I’m being pulled in to save the purists of boxing because people don’t like I’m fighting Jake.<\/p>\n
“If we look at the people that don’t want me to be here, but want me to put an end to ‘the Jake Paul show’, I understand it and that’s why I carry boxing on my back with this fight.”<\/p>\n
Paul, who founded Most Valuable Promotions, however, disagreed and jumped to defend himself.<\/p>\n
“No one has done more for the sport of boxing in the last decade than myself,” Paul said.<\/p>\n
“So if people cared about boxing they would want me to win.<\/p>\n
“But I see the angle they’re coming from in the sense he’s been doing it all his life.<\/p>\n
“But I think that I’m more important for boxing so if they cared about the sport they would want me to win.”<\/p>\n
Is Joshua risking the Tyson Fury fight?<\/p>\n
Promoter Frank Warren confirmed on Monday that Tyson Fury has indicated he will return from retirement for a long-awaited British battle with Joshua, which is being targeted next summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frank Warren provides major update over Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua fight<\/p>\n
But Warren, who represents Fury, admits Joshua will have to forget about plans for a blockbuster bout if he suffers a sensational loss to Paul.<\/p>\n
“Well, if it does, he won’t be fighting Tyson Fury, that’s for sure,” Warren told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
“Jake Paul has had 12 fights. He’s never fought at this level, he’s never fought at this weight at heavyweight and he’s fighting a two-time world champion, former Olympic gold medallist who’s still ranked in the top 10 despite his loss that he had against Daniel Dubois, his comprehensive loss against him.<\/p>\n
“He should have too much – much, much too much – for Jake Paul and if he can’t beat Jake Paul, we shouldn’t even be talking about him fighting Tyson Fury.”<\/p>\n
![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-paul-tyson-fury-jake-paul_7087828.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Jake Paul calls for a fight against Tyson Fury in 2026 in his press conference ahead of his fight against Anthony Joshua. Credit: MVP\/Netflix <\/p>\n
AJ needed ‘career’ reset<\/p>\n
At the age of 36, Joshua has admitted he needed to take a break from the sport after falling short in his attempt to become a three-time world champion following the fifth-round knockout defeat to Dubois at Wembley.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Joshua said: “I had to look at the reasons why I lost, and I said to myself ‘I think I need a bit of time’ because I predicted this moment in like 2018. Not the loss, but the work I was taking on was a lot.<\/p>\n
“I was moving 100 miles an hour, inside training, preparing for fights, working outside of boxing and for any man or any woman, at some stage, they probably need a bit of a reset.<\/p>\n
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skysports-anthony-joshua-jake-paul_7112010.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Anthony Joshua didn’t hold back when telling Jake Paul how he aims to beat him in their fight in Miami on December 19. Pictures courtesy of Most Valuable Promotions<\/p>\n
“So it came to that stage, really, in 2025, where I was at the time and I thought, ‘you know, I probably need a year out of the game.”<\/p>\n
“The question is, should Anthony Joshua fight Jake Paul? Who knows? But we’re going to do it anyway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul traded heated words at the final press conference ahead of their fight in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-354995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354995","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=354995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}