After a relatively competitive first two rounds, Joshua took command, systematically breaking Paul down before securing a sixth-round TKO that left Paul hospitalised with a broken jaw.<\/p>\n
Watching it unfold, Sterling couldn\u2019t help but question the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy direct thing when I was watching this was, where are the lines?\u201d Sterling said on his YouTube channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cBecause it felt like, you\u2019ve got this Olympic-level, high-calibre level, world-class boxer in Anthony Joshua, who looks like he\u2019s playing with his food, and people are sitting there eating it up like, \u2018Oh, Jake\u2019s doing a really good job. He\u2019s moving his feet. He\u2019s staying away.\u2019 I\u2019m just like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re telling me this guy forgot how to cut the ring off?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201c… The way I feel, is that there\u2019s just no way a guy of his calibre, of Anthony Joshua\u2019s calibre of boxing, all the experience he has fighting all these other world-class guys, because we\u2019ve seen how he fights them, and then Jake Paul comes in there, who just relatively started boxing \u2013 he\u2019s pretty skilled for a guy at his level, for how long he\u2019s been boxing \u2013 but not heavyweight level. Not fighting a guy who\u2019s as well-decorated as Anthony Joshua.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul spent much of the fight on the move, darting around the ring to avoid Joshua\u2019s power, but the pressure eventually wore him down.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me wonder, was there a bet on, let\u2019s just carry Jake Paul to X amount of round?\u201d Sterling said. <\/p>\n \u201cMake him look good, we want to entertain, and maybe there\u2019s a lot of people putting money on going past three or four rounds, or something like this. I gotta speculate and wonder about all these other small little details, but I can\u2019t bring myself to grasp.<\/p>\n \u201cI give him respect. He got his jaw broken. You can\u2019t fake that. But that\u2019s what should have possibly happened in the first round, and that is my point. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are levels to boxing, and no disrespect to Jake Paul. Again, entertainer, great for the sport in terms of bringing eyeballs, but that should not have gone that long.\u201d<\/p>\n Sterling continued to question the fight, believing there were instances where Joshua looked like he was deliberately pulling his punches.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to say (the fight was) rigged, I want to say there was an agreement,\u201d Sterling said. <\/p>\n \u201c… I\u2019m literally watching him pull punches in the early rounds, and I was getting so mad. I was like there has to be a big bet, a big parlay, or some time agreement, paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n Sterling wasn\u2019t alone in raising eyebrows over the fight, as former UFC champion Israel Adesanya also suggested that Joshua may have been taking it easy on Paul.<\/p>\n \u201cHonest thoughts on the fight, I feel like AJ carried Jake Paul to the sixth round,\u201d Adesanya said on his YouTube channel.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI know what my eyes see, and I understand fighting. But this is, I guess, the best result, or the most realistic result, I guess. But I know what my eyes were seeing in the early rounds and then now we\u2019re here. <\/p>\n \u201cOh well. They made money. Everyone is happy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever the case, the fight was another ratings smash for Netflix drawing a staggering 33 million viewers worldwide.<\/p>\n The streaming service reported that the event was its No. 1-ranked program in 45 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia, Mexico, and Argentina. <\/p>\n![\"AJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9b23006e1b3b973957e7fd643f3785df.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n