Anthony Joshua came face-to-face with Jake Paul and made the December 19 clash a reality, rather than a fantasy freak show.
It is time for boxing fans to unite behind the British former two-time heavyweight world champion and hope that victory comes with no complications in the eight-round contest.
Joshua must win for his own future and career moves, but perhaps the future of boxing is on the line, too. If Joshua wins fast and conclusively, it ends the legitimacy of celebrity YouTube boxing, a new genre created by master marketeer Paul and his 50 million youthful social media followers.
The message is clear: if you are a boxing fan, you need to support AJ.
Joshua meets YouTuber-turned-boxer known as “the Problem Child” in what is a huge mismatch at the Kaseya Center, home of the Miami Heat professional basketball team. Joshua took the fight on six weeks’ notice, and is expected to earn upwards of £25m for eight three-minute rounds.
He revealed at the news conference that he was due to fight on the undercard of the four world title fights taking place in Riyadh this weekend (earnings circa £1m), against a top-100 ranked heavyweight. Instead, Joshua dives into this bout facing, bizarrely, more jeopardy in the event of anything going wrong. Paul even getting through the eight rounds would be embarrassing for the Briton.
Paul described his sense of “deluded optimism”. Joshua said he would “stamp all over” his opponent and “break” the outrageously daring American. He told Telegraph Sport that he is “stoked”, and that he is taking Paul seriously. That is wise, as ridiculous as it may sound, given the obvious gulf in class, ability and experience.
Joshua insisted his threat is very real, which is what has caused concern over the sanctioning of this event by the Florida State Commission. “I’m going to break his face and break his body up. I’m here to prove I’m the better fighter,” Joshua, who is now 36, said.
“I’ll stamp all over him. That’s a fighter’s mentality. I’m going to really want to hurt him. That’s what I want to do.” Paul was unmoved.
Visiting the American backstage after the news conference, Paul was adamant that victory would be his, suggesting he was a month away from causing “the biggest upset in the history of boxing”. And he was deadly serious about beating a heavyweight who is expected to face Tyson Fury in an all-British heavyweight blockbuster in September next year, in what would be one of the richest fights in the sport.
The audacious Paul went even further, the 28-year-old predicting a knockout win in round four and claiming he would destroy any Joshua-Fury fight. “It’s going to be me versus Tyson Fury next year,” Paul said. “Just watch...”
It seems highly improbable, maybe even impossible. Yet Paul has a way of writing the most peculiar of scripts, of talking them into existence. His only defeat, incidentally, was to Fury’s brother, Tommy, in 2023.
As Joshua and Paul faced off, the size difference was enormous, a true David and Goliath comparison. For the sake of boxing, fans of the sport had better hope that Joshua gets the task completed with simplicity and brutality come fight night.