Jake Paul has faced criticisms throughout his boxing career for cherry-picking opponents that are usually smaller than him, but he’s ready to silence his naysayers with his biggest opponent yet.
Quite literally, former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will be Paul’s biggest opponent to date. The 6’6″ British knockout artist is required to weigh in at 245 pounds the day before the Dec. 19 fight in Miami, but there’s no limit to what he can weigh when he and Paul meet in the ring live on Netflix.
So what would a win over Joshua mean for the sport of boxing as a whole? In the 28-year-old YouTuber’s eyes, it would be a paradigm shift.
“It’s more than a message. It’s literally just like a complete shutdown, reboot boxing,” Paul told Bleacher Report. “I would have it in the palm of my hands, and I think everyone would just be completely silenced, and jaws dropped on the floor. That’s what’s gonna happen on December 19th.”
The 6’1″ Paul carries a 12-1 record with seven knockouts into Friday’s fight, most recently defeating former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June. Before that, he made his heavyweight debut in a win against the legendary Mike Tyson last November in the first combat sports event ever to be streamed live on Netflix. Both those fights went to a decision, and while he’s at a size disadvantage for the first time in his career, he has a bold prediction for how his fight against Joshua will end.
“I’m knocking him out. I’m knocking him out,” Paul said emphatically. “1,000 percent. It’s gonna happen.”
Paul typically fights at cruiserweight, where the weight limit is 200 pounds, and he’s made it clear that his end goal is to win a championship belt. However, a win over a former champion like Joshua could put him in the mix at heavyweight, and he admitted that he’s intrigued by the thought of pursuing a title in two divisions.
“That would be crazy, I think it would be much harder at heavyweight, but the world is your oyster, and anything is possible. So, we will see what happens. It would be hilarious to become the heavyweight champion of the world as a cruiserweight. But, I think definitely the focus will be working towards the belt at cruiserweight,” he said, going on to name Noel Mikaelian, who defeated Badou Jack on Saturday night to win the WBC cruiserweight title.
Confidence aside, Paul is taking his fight preparation for Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) very seriously. He said he’s adjusted his workout regimen by increasing his power lifting and bodybuilding routines while reducing running to avoid burning muscle.
“Definitely more weightlifting, putting on some weight, eating as much as possible, and bringing in sparring partners that are massive, 6’6″, 270, 250 [pounds],” Paul said of his training camp. “So it’s been very physically demanding in terms of sparring, but the goal is to make the sparring harder than what the potential fight might be like.”
Paul certainly accomplished his mission, as he was recently seen with a black eye from sparring against a heavyweight training partner. Still, he feels that he’s pushing himself to a new level for this fight by facing tough circumstances in training.
“To me, it’s normal. The first two years of boxing, I pretty much got a bloody nose and black eyes like every day in sparring, and then my body just sort of adapted. My nose stopped bleeding all of a sudden one day,” Paul said. “It’s pretty normal to get black eyes in sparring, it’s just part of the sport, and you want to be pushing yourself and working hard and getting touched in sparring, otherwise you’re not training properly.”
Joshua hasn’t fought since his upset fifth-round knockout loss against Daniel Dubois in September 2024. Paul said he’s been studying Joshua’s losses as well as his wins, and he played some mind games when he announced the signing of Dubois’ sister, WBC women’s lightweight champion Caroline Dubois, to Most Valuable Promotions.
In addition to the troll job, the signing continues Paul’s quest to elevate women’s boxing.
“I think it just was something where women were misrepresented, they didn’t have the same opportunities, the paydays, the platform. Me and [MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian’s] vision was always to be able to provide that for women in the sport, and that’s just exactly what we’ve done. And when we did that, the reception to it has been amazing,” Paul said. “The women put on spectacular shows, knockouts, fire fights and are highly entertaining. So, they proved our thesis to be true, that women’s boxing is incredible and something that the world needs to see. All we have done is just continue to push and push and push and grow and build our stable and make the big fights happen and put the best vs. the best, and it’s been a recipe for success. Now, we have all the momentum in the world, and it’s only gonna get bigger from here.”
Paul also weighed in on the upcoming exhibition fight between the legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his former foe, Tyson. Despite sharing the ring with the 59-year-old, Paul picked Mayweather to come out on top.
“Man, it’s a great matchup, big vs. small in a sense. I just think that Floyd is still the younger man, and the skills pay the bills,” Paul said. “So, I don’t know, it’ll probably be tough for Mike. I think Floyd will be able to pull it off as the younger man.”
He added: “I think Mike has a great chance, but as a power puncher, Tyson’s gonna have to land the big shot, but Floyd has the best defensive boxing in the history of the sport. So, I don’t think Floyd’s gonna let Tyson land that big shot.”
As Paul continues to forge his path in boxing, he’s maintained a desire to continue to explore other realms of combat sports. His brother, Logan, is on a similar path as a WWE Superstar, and it sounds like there’s a chance the two siblings join forces in the wrestling ring at some point.
“I would be down,” Paul said of a potential run in WWE alongside his brother. “I think he’s incredible. I would love to be his Paul Heyman, his manager of some sort, and maybe we can run some matches, for sure. I think it’s absolutely insane what he’s doing, and I would love to help him.”
Some have wondered if Jake has already been helping Logan, as a masked man assisted him multiple times recently, first in the main event of the Survivor Series: WarGames premium live event, and again during last week’s episode of Monday Night Raw during his confrontation with Rey Mysterio and his match against LA Knight.
While Jake didn’t confirm that he’s the man under the mask, he also didn’t deny it, either.
“I can’t say too much, but, just know, something big’s coming,” he said with a grin.
But for now, Paul is putting all of his energy toward preparing to shock the world when he faces Joshua on Friday. While he usually has his future opponents already mapped out, he admitted that he doesn’t have time to think of what’s next as he gears up for his toughest test yet.
“You know, I normally do, but this one is all about December 19th,” he said. “I have a very tall mountain to climb, my biggest challenge in front of me, and I think that’s been the focus for me, Nakisa and MVP, just getting through December 19th.”