{"id":283697,"date":"2025-11-26T04:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283697\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T04:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:04:08","slug":"eddie-hearn-reveals-jake-paul-team-begged-anthony-joshua-to-come-down-in-weight-we-need-you-to-have-some-disadvantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283697\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn reveals Jake Paul team begged Anthony Joshua to \u2018come down in weight\u2019 \u2014 \u2018We need you to have some disadvantage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrity pugilist Jake Paul will box former two-time unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Netflix, an eight-round showdown scheduled\u00a0for Fri., Dec. 19, 2025 from inside Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida<\/a>.\u00a0Judging by their first staredown (see it here<\/a>), Paul will be giving up several inches in both height and reach \u2014 which could prove fatal<\/a> when you also factor in the disparity in their respective skill sets.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why MVP boss Nakisa Bidarian begged fellow promoter Eddie Hearn for \u201csome disadvantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI spoke to [Joshua] and he was sitting at 265 pounds or something like that \u2014 I think I told Nakisa that he was 290 pounds or something like that,\u201d Hearn told BBC 5 Live<\/a>. \u201cI said I\u2019m not interested in balloon gloves and two-minute rounds but he said it was a real fight. I asked if it was 10 rounds or eight rounds, they said fine to eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018The only thing is that Jake will weigh about 220 pounds and we want AJ to come down in weight.\u2019 He\u2019s a heavyweight and hasn\u2019t cut weight before,\u201d Hearn continued. \u201cThey said, \u2018Look we\u2019re not being funny and it\u2019s not that we need an advantage but we need you to have some disadvantage.\u2018\u201d<\/p>\n

The Olympian has a history of annihilating part-time pugilists<\/a> with dreams of \u201csweet science\u201d superstardom.<\/p>\n

Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) took over for Gervonta Davis, who was previously booked to battle Paul in \u201cThe Sunshine State\u201d but got bounced over legal issues (more on that here<\/a>). Former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, got approached to replace \u201cTank\u201d but\u00a0scoffed at the idea<\/a>, paving the way for \u201cAJ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumbass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrity pugilist Jake Paul will box former two-time unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Netflix, an eight-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6565,2560,6572,6566,25520,101,56,54,55,115676],"class_list":["post-283697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-boxing","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-jake-paul","tag-nakisa-bidarian","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-heavyweight-champion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}