There were more than a few reactions of shock and awe when Jake Paul announced he was no longer fighting Gervonta “Tank” Davis and instead booked a showdown against former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Dec. 19 in Miami.
Paul went from having a huge size and power advantage over Davis, who typically competes around 135 pounds, to a legit heavyweight with devastating knockout power in Joshua. The odds reflect the one-sided nature of this fight with Joshua opening at around a 12-to-1 favorite to beat Paul.
UFC legend Matt Brown argues this is likely just a way for Joshua to make a huge paycheck at minimal risk by going up against an opponent in Paul, who has only faced five opponents with real boxing experience including in his lone loss to Tommy Fury in 2023.
“I think Anthony Joshua is above it,” Brown said about the matchup on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Anthony Joshua, I don’t want to say he sold out, maybe he bought in but he’s doing this solely for money. If this is not somehow rigged, Anthony Joshua murders Jake Paul. The only person to respect in this whole thing is Jake Paul. He’s taking on a real boxer, which we’ve been saying [he needed to do] for a long time.
“It’s still going to surprise me all to hell if they actually make this walk because when I first saw the news of it, I was like this is not going to happen. This is PR. This is bullshit. I still, in the back of my head, I’m like this isn’t going to happen. Somebody’s going to pull out. Somebody’s going to get hurt. The card’s going to fall apart. Something’s going to happen. But if it happens, you’ve to respect Jake Paul for having the balls to do that. Anthony Joshua’s no joke.”
Paul has gone as far as proudly declaring his own delusion that he believes he can win this fight despite the obvious disadvantages he faces going up against Joshua.
The fight is happening 15 months after Joshua suffered only the second knockout loss of his career when he was finished by Daniel Dubois in September 2024. Now 36 years old and likely out of title contention for the time being, Joshua might be nearing the end of his career.
That factor might boost Paul’s confidence that he could potentially pull off this unlikely upset.
“If you’re a guy who’s a heavyweight contender, you’ve got 15 or 20 fights and you’re on your way up in the heavyweight division, this is the time you would look at Joshua and say now’s the time to attack,” Brown said. “Now’s a good time to match up against the guy. He’s probably on his way out. He’s probably not got a ton of fights left. He’s been knocked out recently. Now’s the time to go in and make your name off him.
“I just wonder if that’s what Jake Paul is thinking. He’s still in the limelight. He’s still active. He still competes. Now is the time to go take advantage and exploit him. I just don’t think that’s going to be the case. That’s the only thing that I can think that they’re thinking. I’m trying to build my name off of Anthony Joshua. Joshua’s not there yet. He’s not 58 years old. He’s not Mike Tyson.”
There have been plenty of shocking upsets in combat sports from Matt Serra dethroning Georges St-Pierre in the UFC to James “Buster” Douglas demolishing Mike Tyson in his prime. But Brown doesn’t see that kind of stunning result coming for Paul versus Joshua.
“You don’t even give him a Hail Mary chance. It’s boxing, not MMA,” Brown said. “If it was an MMA fight, yeah Hail Mary chance. In boxing, this is just so few and far between. You don’t see that stuff in boxing, especially against guys that are world champion level. I don’t even give him a Hail Mary chance. The only chance that he has is surviving.
“If he survives all eight rounds, I’m going to be conspiracy theorizing. Only if he survives. I think he may be coming into this thinking that’s a notch in my cap that I survived eight rounds with a heavyweight champion. I don’t know. I’m not sure what the thought process is behind this. No matter how you twist it and say it, I have respect Jake Paul for doing this fight… If they’re going into a real fight, I respect Jake Paul for taking the chance.”
Because the fight is viewed as such an astronomical mismatch, Brown knows there are going to be all sorts of questions and possibly even accusations alleging that the fight is fixed.
It doesn’t help that the UFC is dealing with fight-fixing allegations stemming from suspicious circumstances that unfolded around a matchup that took place at UFC Vegas 110 in November.
“The biggest problem with this fight is unless Jake gets knocked out, we’ll all be — including me — be conspiracy theorizing,” Brown said. “There’s no way we can’t. We’re all going to be like ‘what the f*ck? How much did you pay Joshua for that?’
“It’s under an actual commission so it’s going to be a little bit harder to rig anything. But I don’t know how the back door deals work. I’m speechless. If Jake Paul does not get knocked out, it’s a conspiracy and I’m on board with the conspiracy.”
Assuming there’s no strange occurrences, and both fighters set foot in the ring at full health come Dec. 19, Brown doesn’t see how this ends well for Paul.
“He doesn’t have a chance if it’s a real fight,” Brown said. “I can’t help but go to conspiracy theories here. It’s almost like it’s playing right in your face. They’re conspiracy theorizing right in your face. I just cannot find a way to not buy into some conspiracy theory.
“I cannot help but think there has to be some ulterior motive here. There has to be something more than Jake Paul actually wanting to go have a real fight with Anthony Joshua. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense that he thinks he could beat him. It doesn’t make sense that he would want to take that beating and look like a fool on national television or Netflix, worldwide television. It doesn’t add up in any way. If there’s no conspiracy theories going on here, then f*cking mad respect to Jake Paul. We can all shut up and give him his respect now. He might get his ass kicked, but we can still show the respect to him.”
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