Joe Rogan is concerned Jake Paul’s next fight could be his last. Figuratively speaking.
On Dec. 19, Paul, the social influencer-turned-pro boxer, takes on two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in an official eight-round contest. The bout came together after Paul’s original opponent Gervonta Davis withdrew from their exhibition contest after being named in a civil suit accusing him of several violent crimes. Suddenly, Paul went from having an enormous size advantage to facing an experienced fighter who dwarfs him in stature as well as reputation.
Given the strange circumstances and Paul’s rapid rise in notoriety in the combat sports world, allegations of fight-fixing have dogged the 28-year-old to the point that he has threatened to take legal action against public figures making such accusations.
Rogan doesn’t think there’s a chance Joshua takes a dive because of how it could affect his ability to book lucrative matchups (such as a highly anticipated clash with fellow British star Tyson Fury) and he’s hoping Paul is taking the threat of Joshua seriously.
“I don’t think he’s going to lose to you on purpose,” Rogan said on a recent podcast. “But I’m not saying that anybody lost to anybody on purpose, I don’t think that’s happened. What I do think is that people take it easier on people if they like them and it looked like [Paul and Mike Tyson] were taking it easier on each other than you’d expect, I’ll just say that. That’s just my personal opinion. I don’t think that’s going to happen with this fight.
“I don’t think there’s any chance in the world, knowing what Anthony Joshua’s a specialist at. He’s a specialist at putting knuckles through your f*cking brain and that’s what he’s going to try to do to Jake Paul and anything other than that from a 34-year-old Anthony Joshua will make us all think it’s a fixed fight.”
Rogan finds it hard to believe that Paul even agreed to sign on to fight Joshua in the first place. Though Paul has has put together a 12-1 record as a pro boxer, his victories have come against a bizarre smorgasbord of competition, including an aged Mike Tyson, past-their-prime MMA stars Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz, Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren, and even NBA veteran Nate Robinson. Joshua presents the most daunting challenge of Paul’s brief fighting career.
Joshua, 36, is coming off a disappointing knockout loss to Daniel Dubois, but his history of high-level heavyweight competition still puts him in another league compared to Paul.
“Realistically, it’s one of the craziest propositions of all time,” Rogan said. “You take a guy who just had a boxing match that looks like a sparring match with a 58-year-old Mike Tyson and then you’re going to fight one of the absolute scariest knockout artists in the heavyweight division. Maybe we should watch the Francis Ngannou fight just so you can see what Anthony Joshua is capable if he’s fighting someone that’s not in his league.
“OK, look. [Oleksandr] Usyk beat [Joshua] and he beat him twice and Andy Ruiz caught him in the first fight and dropped him and stopped him. It was spectacular. Andy Ruiz is super f*cking talented. Usyk is perhaps the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Maybe one of the greatest of all time in any weight class.”
Regardless of whether this turns out to be a complete mismatch, as expected, Paul has Rogan’s attention.
“He’s so dangerous,” Rogan said of Joshua. “You’re dealing with a guy who’s an Olympic gold medalist and he’s enormous and he’s got vicious knockout power and he’s got immense amount of experience at world-class levels. Think about what we said earlier: Fought Usyk twice. Fought Andy Ruiz twice. … So the fact that Jake Paul wants to fight that guy, hey, I’ll watch. I’m definitely going to watch, so you got me there, and if you want to show your legit by taking on one of the scariest f*cking heavyweights alive…”
Paul himself has said he is “ready to die” to beat Joshua and he potentially has eight rounds to work with to pull of what would be one of the most shocking upsets in combat sports history. Joshua will have to come in lighter than usual due to a clause in the contract, but Rogan doesn’t expect Joshua to be affected by the bigger weight cut.
If anything, it might put him in prime shape to destroy Paul.
“There’s not a chance that Anthony Joshua is not going to just lose the weight beforehand,” Rogan said. “He’s not going to come in drained. What he’s going to do is just do extra cardio and that’s just going to make him more dangerous. He’s going to be terrifying and he’s going to have a lot to prove. He’s going to be very angry that Jake Paul wants to fight him. Very upset that this YouTuber who’s fought Tommy Fury, who’s a legit boxer, and you know, a couple other guys that were legit boxers, that’s it.
“Everyone else he’s fought, he’s fought Ben Askren, who was really a wrestler. He fought Tyron Woodley, who was an elite MMA fighter, but not an elite boxer. He fought Nate Robinson, who was a basketball player. He fought Anderson Silva and he dropped Anderson Silva and Anderson Silva is a really good striker, but also in his 40s, you know, different time. It’s not the same guy he used to be. This is a [36-year-old] Anthony Joshua. This is a terrifying human being. Terrifying.”
FIGHTS. Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett for an interim lightweight title (???) headlines UFC 324, with bantamweight legend Amanda Nunes also set to return on that card against champion Kayla Harrison; meanwhile, UFC 325’s headliner is set as Alexander Volkanovski meets Diego Lopes in a featherweight championship rematch (?????).
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Break. Ilia Topuria won’t be competing in early 2026 as he deals with personal matters.
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UFC 324 fight announcement reaction.
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Give the people what they want!
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
The definitive fight week schedule.
Chimaev vs. Imavov, 2026?
Justin Gaethje (26-5) vs. Paddy Pimblett (23-3); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Kayla Harrison (19-1) vs. Amanda Nunes (23-5); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Sean O’Malley (18-3, 1 NC) vs. Song Yadong (22-8-1, 1 NC); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Alexa Grasso (16-5-1) vs. Rose Namajunas (14-7); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Umar Nurmagomedov (19-1) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (25-5-1); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Waldo Cortes-Acosta (16-2) vs. Derrick Lewis (29-12, 1 NC); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Arnold Allen (20-3) vs. Jean Silva (16-3); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Ateba Gautier (9-1) vs. Andrey Pulyaev (10-3); UFC 324, Jan. 24
Alexander Volkanovski (27-4) vs. Diego Lopes (27-7); UFC 325, Jan. 31
The Paramount Era is upon us!
I don’t know what the matchmakers are doing putting an interim title fight on the line between Gaethje and Pimblett when Topuria could be back near the tail end of the first half of 2026, and I really don’t know what they’re doing running back Volkanovski and Lopes. And Nunes returning to fight Harrison isn’t the UFC 324 main event? This is dumb.
On a positive note: We’re getting some great fights! So I’m going to just shut off my brain for a few days and not worry about silly things like titles and contenders and hope for the best.
If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.
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