Anthony Joshua, the two-time heavyweight world champion, laboured to beat YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul in one of boxing’s most controversial mismatches, breaking Paul’s jaw in two places as the Miami fight was stopped in the sixth round.
Joshua, still one of the world’s most formidable heavyweights, with a punching power incomparable to any of Paul’s previous opponents – a range of influencers and retired MMA fighters and boxers – would have won a poor fight sooner had Paul not prioritised avoiding him. The pair are expected to share a $100m purse.
The former Disney Channel star was knocked down four times in the fifth and sixth rounds on Friday night, repeatedly grabbing Joshua’s legs. There were audible boos, and at one point referee Christopher Young warned the pair, “the fans didn’t pay to see this crap”.
Although the fight was sanctioned by the Florida Athletic Commission, the British Boxing Board of Control said it would not have done so due to widespread, and ultimately vindicated, safety concerns. Joshua, 36, is five inches taller and weighed in almost two stone heavier than cruiserweight Paul, who struggled to lay a meaningful glove on his opponent.
While Joshua, once the darling of British boxing, kept his reputation largely intact, aided by a knockout blow that has been viewed by tens of millions of people on social media, he would have wanted to end the fight sooner, given the gap in experience.
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Paul, 28, had only lost one of his previous 13 professional fights, to Love Island star Tommy Fury. His exhibition victory over then-58-year-old Mike Tyson became the most-streamed sporting event ever in November 2024. Netflix has yet to release viewing figures for Friday’s fight.
This was the fourth match broadcast by the streaming giant, which has become a significant player in boxing, but has faced criticism over the decision to broadcast such an uneven fight. “They’ve got the money. They’re clearly getting the audience,” said pundit Steve Bunce. “It makes everyone else raise their game and hopefully raises the profile of the sport.”
Paul is the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which promoted his side of the fight. “No one’s done more for the sport of boxing in the past decade than myself,” he said before the match.
“I give him a lot of credit for what he is doing as a promoter,” Sky Sports commentator Andy Clarke said. “He has heavily invested in female pro boxing and what I hear about him on a business level is really good. He does a lot of good things for the sport and can continue to – just fighting at his own level.”
But he added: “If this kind of thing happens often enough– and I hope it never happens again – someone is going to get seriously hurt, and that will badly affect boxing.”
Joshua’s next fight is expected to take place in February, before a rumoured meeting with former world champion Tyson Fury in September – which would probably bring Fury out of retirement for at least a fourth time. Paul said he would take a break from the sport before returning to his own weight class, pledging to win a world championship belt “at some point”.
“Some people worry and panic too much about Paul, say he’s killing boxing,” Bunce said. “Get lost. Boxing does enough to sabotage itself and damage its image just by the way it functions.”
This weekend self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate is due to take part in a celebrity fight in Dubai in an event organised by Misfits, the boxing promotion company of which Tate is CEO. Keir Starmer has faced calls to extradite Tate to the UK, where he stands accused of 21 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
Photographs by Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images; DA Varela/PA Wire