{"id":350523,"date":"2025-12-17T06:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350523\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T06:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:31:13","slug":"dedicated-athlete-with-the-best-coaches-but-can-jake-paul-actually-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/350523\/","title":{"rendered":"Dedicated athlete with the best coaches \u2014 but can Jake Paul actually box?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Anthony Joshua\u2019s fight against Jake Paul was announced last month, boxing insiders and fans alike assumed it must be some kind of practical joke, or that there was a secret clause written into the contract to ensure the latter does not get seriously hurt. Either that or Paul, a former Disney Channel star who has only had 13 professional bouts, harboured some kind of death wish. Three days out from a dystopian contest that is starting to feel morbidly real, Joshua still carries the air of a man clutching a $50million lottery ticket who cannot believe his luck.<\/p>\n

Common sense dictates that Paul does not even have a puncher\u2019s chance. When Joshua beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2017<\/a>, the 28-year-old Paul was still making prank videos on YouTube. The face-offs between the pair in Miami this week have been comical, too, with Joshua taller by five inches and heavier by around three stones. Paul has cited God being on his side, but at least David was afforded a slingshot against Goliath. <\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s best win to date came in June against Julio C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez Jr, a genuine \u2014 if inactive and inconsistent \u2014 former middleweight world champion, but it is still less than three years since he lost against Tommy Fury, who is better known for his exploits on Love Island than emulating his older brother Tyson\u2019s talents in the ring.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

Paul, right, trains for the Joshua fight at his camp in Puerto Rico, where it is claimed sparring partners go easy on the social media star to stay in work<\/p>\n

But as Nakisa Bidarian, Paul\u2019s promoter, points out, his charge is only a 6-1 underdog. When Buster Douglas stunned Mike Tyson in 1990, the bookmakers had offered odds of up to 42-1. Paul meandered to a meaningless victory over the 58-year-old ghost of Tyson<\/a> a year ago but, as he has largely fought former athletes and MMA fighters, it is difficult to determine how good \u2014 or not \u2014 he is. Even Eddie Hearn, who accepts nothing less than a spectacular knockout for Joshua would be catastrophic, admits he has heard a lot of mixed messages.<\/p>\n

To Paul\u2019s credit, there can be little doubt any more that he has dedicated himself to professional boxing. He spends much of the year in Puerto Rico, where he lives on an isolated compound with a state-of-the-art gym, recovery facility, and accommodation for his team and sparring partners. For this camp, he brought over bona fide heavyweight contenders in Lawrence Okolie, Jared Anderson and Frank S\u00e1nchez, but Steve Geffrard, a 35-year-old from Miami who campaigns at 175lb, has seen Paul\u2019s development first-hand over the course of hundreds of rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with Jake because he has it all as far as the money and the fame, so I thought I was just going to be with a YouTuber and mess around, but he works extremely hard,\u201d Geffrard says. \u201cHe has all the resources: the best coaches; strength and conditioning; physios; nutritionists, and he is a good athlete. Whether people want to admit it or not, I\u2019ve seen a lot of improvement in his skills in the last two years. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a strong fighter. He\u2019s got quick hands. I think the problem is he hasn\u2019t really been able to show it yet because of the people he\u2019s fought. He\u2019s way better than the level of competition he has been fighting. This is a massive jump, but it\u2019s boxing. You can\u2019t count anybody out. We\u2019ve seen some crazy things happen in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeAndre Savage, who is ranked No248 in the heavyweight division by BoxRec, offers a more damning verdict after spending about six weeks in Paul\u2019s camp in the build-up to the fight against Tyson. \u201cWhen I sparred Jake, I recognised that he is still a little green. He doesn\u2019t have the experience to fight Anthony Joshua. The fight doesn\u2019t really make sense to me. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s even going to be close,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Boxers<\/p>\n

Paul coasts to a points victory against the 58-year-old Tyson in November last year<\/p>\n

TIMOTHY A CLARY\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Savage does go on to credit Paul\u2019s work ethic, but then claims he had to hold back in their spars for fear he would otherwise have been sent home and missed out on a good wage. \u201cI couldn\u2019t give it my all because I\u2019d have lost my job,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you start beating him up [in sparring] he\u2019ll cut the day short. That happened a couple of times, so that\u2019s why I just had to work with him, move him around, give him what he wants\u2026 Anthony Joshua\u2019s got way more experience than me, so I don\u2019t know what Jake\u2019s motive is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have wondered just that, given Paul\u2019s enormous social media following means he could have still earned an eight-figure sum against a far inferior opponent. The chasm in calibre between the two fighters is also why the British Boxing Board of Control would have refused to license the fight if it had been staged in the UK.<\/p>\n

Bidarian concedes there were some US states where the boxing commission asked if Paul would fight another heavyweight before Joshua. \u201cI was like, \u2018OK, so if he fights this tomato can, you\u2019re good?\u2019 They said yes. It doesn\u2019t make any sense,\u201d Bidarian says before bringing up the record of Michael Sprott, who had lost 22 times before he fought Joshua in 2014. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people say this is dangerous, number one: every boxing match is dangerous. Number two: this is a lot less dangerous than what happens on almost every single card, which is promoters lining up prospects against journeymen. Joshua fought this guy [Sprott] in his tenth fight. He was coming off a knockout loss and lost five times after that. That\u2019s more dangerous. Jake is not coming there to get knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the insinuation the fight must somehow be rigged, Bidarian is bullish. \u201cIf we\u2019ve ever had any stipulation in any contract that was anything other than what\u2019s been announced, that didn\u2019t make it a professional fight in any way \u2014 that would be illegal,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the US, that would be a federal crime. Assume that I want to take the risk of going to jail and Jake Paul wants to. Do you think our partners at Netflix, the biggest media company in the world, want to commit a federal crime?<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

Paul defeats former middleweight world champion Ch\u00e1vez Jr last summer but he has never confronted anybody with the punching power of Joshua<\/p>\n

CRIS ESQUEDA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time in the history of Jake Paul\u2019s career we\u2019ve ever had anything funny in a contract has been disclosed, which was when he fought Mike Tyson. Instead of three-minute rounds, it was two-minute rounds, and the gloves in that fight were 14oz instead of 10oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fight has been reduced to eight three-minute rounds and Joshua has to weigh in below 245lb \u2014 half a stone lighter than for his brutal defeat by Daniel Dubois in September 2024. But the fact the pair are using regulation 10oz gloves ought to mean Joshua ends the contest quickly. <\/p>\n

If the fight were to go on any longer than three rounds, it would say as much about the 36-year-old\u2019s waning powers as Paul\u2019s supposed improvement. Perhaps the American\u2019s team are banking on the Dubois fight having taken a toll on Joshua, but it is one hell of a gamble. People might no longer be able to criticise the credibility of Paul\u2019s opponent or his ambition to be recognised as a genuine boxer, but it could well come at a great cost to both himself and the sport.<\/p>\n

Anthony Joshua v Jake Paul<\/p>\n

Kaseya Centre in Miami, Florida
Saturday, 3.30am (GMT)
TV Netflix<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Anthony Joshua\u2019s fight against Jake Paul was announced last month, boxing insiders and fans alike assumed it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-350523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}