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Two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will fight the YouTuber Jake Paul in Miami tonight in one of the most controversial professional boxing bouts ever.
So what? The popularity and reputation of boxing has been in decline for a while. Saudi money dominates the sport and influencer fights draw more eyeballs than professional title clashes. But many consider tonight’s bout to be a new low. The fight
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is expected to be the most streamed of all time, largely due to morbid curiosity; and
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has raised serious safety concerns given Paul has never faced a boxer of Joshua’s calibre and size; and
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represents a new frontier for influencer boxing, a murky and often unregulated space in which the self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate is a leading figure.
Misfits. Joshua, 36, is one of the most formidable heavyweights in the world. He is significantly stronger and more technically proficient than Paul. Having faced a mixture of influencers, retired boxers and MMA fighters, Paul’s professional record is 12 wins and one defeat. The loss came against the former Love Island star Tommy Fury. Multiple current and former fighters have expressed concern for Paul’s life, while Joshua has said: “If I can kill you, I will.”
That’s entertainment. The fight will be streamed on Netflix, which also broadcast Paul’s victory over 58-year-old Mike Tyson last year. This was, at the time, the most streamed sporting event ever. “That’s the whole point of this fight,” Joshua has said. “It creates conversation and that’s what we want. I’m not worried about what people think about the integrity side.”
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Professional. The fight has been sanctioned as professional by the Florida Athletic Commission, although the British Boxing Board of Control and many other American states would have refused to license it due to safety fears.
By the numbers:
$100m – the purse both fighters are expected to share, although Paul will earn more through his promotion company.
245lbs – the weight limit for the contest, which is at the lower end of Joshua’s normal fight weight but significantly more than the 199lbs Paul weighed for his most recent bout.
5in – the height difference between 6ft 6in Joshua and Paul.
Disney World. The younger brother of YouTuber turned WWE fighter Logan Paul, Jake starred in Disney Channel series Bizaardvark from 2016-2018, alongside a series of Disney films. He was an early adopter of the YouTube boxing boom in 2018, before his first professional fight in 2020. He has since permanently moved to Puerto Rico to train and focus on the ring.
Fighting talk. Alongside his own bouts, Paul is the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which is considered a leading advocate for women’s boxing. “No one’s done more for the sport of boxing in the past decade than myself,” Paul said this week. Turki Al-Sheikh, chair of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, might disagree.
Golden boy. Joshua has been the chiselled darling of British boxing since winning gold at London 2012. His victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 was the pinnacle of his career. But since his defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr two years later, he has struggled to match these heights.
Not to be underestimated. Joshua still remains among the sport’s leading fighters, while his promoter Eddie Hearn perhaps generously said that Paul was in the “top 60 or 70” cruiserweights in the world. For all the money involved, Joshua’s reputation will be damaged significantly if the fight lasts longer than three rounds.
Sound and Fury. Joshua hopes to use Paul as a warm-up for his slated bout with an elite opponent in February, before a fight with Tyson Fury in September. Fury is expected to come out of retirement for what would be one of the most anticipated clashes in boxing history.
Unsportsmanlike conduct. Despite starting as an idea for a comedy sketch between YouTubers, influencer boxing is now valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This fight will reinforce the legitimacy of a world that undermines boxing’s already waning reputation.
What’s more… Andrew Tate is headlining an influencer event on Saturday in Dubai organised by the promotion company Misfits. The standard will be poor, prioritising theatre and clicks. But the money on offer from the Joshua-Paul fight is only going to encourage more imitators.
Photograph by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images