Jake Paul has spent years demanding to be recognised as a “real” boxer.<\/p>\n
He has called out the likes of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, while at the same time picking opponents ranging from retired MMA fighters and faded ex-champions to reality TV personalities and even a grandfather.<\/p>\n
But on Friday in Miami, that sideshow collides with boxing’s top tier as Paul faces two-time heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medallist Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n
Some give Paul, the Disney-actor-turned-YouTuber-turned-boxer, credit for daring. Others question his sanity. Almost nobody gives him a chance.<\/p>\n
“I worry about Jake’s health,” trainer Joe Gallagher tells BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
Former world champion and Team GB coach Richie Woodhall says Joshua is the “hardest puncher” he has ever had on the pads.<\/p>\n
Liverpool’s two-division champion Natasha Jonas calls the whole event simply “wild”.<\/p>\n
That tension with boxing’s old guard irritates Paul. In fight week, he bristled at the mention of criticism, describing detractors as a “peanut gallery that doesn’t exist” and insisting the question of whether he belongs no longer concerns him.<\/p>\n
On paper, Paul-Joshua is the biggest mismatch to headline a boxing event. <\/p>\n
Yet inside Paul’s camp, the tone is very different. There is a belief the 28-year-old has improved far more than the public realise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Paul has spent years demanding to be recognised as a “real” boxer. He has called out the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-198137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}