Charismatic American YouTuber turned heavyweight boxer Jake Paul was knocked unconscious by two-time former British champion Anthony Joshua in Miami this Friday evening. The show they offered, with huge margins in favor of Joshua, was broadcast live on Netflix and earned the fighters an impressive sum of $184 million.
Just over a year after his controversial victory over the devastated Mike Tyson, 58, 28-year-old Paul will step into the ring at the Kaseya Center in Miami to face a much younger and much more dangerous opponent: Joshua, 36.
“Well, it definitely wasn’t my best performance, but he’s a great champion and I did what I could…” said Paul, who already showed poor physical condition and looked tired in the third round. The fight sparked controversy as there were decidedly few equivalences between a showman like Paul and a professional boxer like Joshua, who not only dominated the heavyweights twice but was also an Olympic medalist and, at 36, still aims to fight with the best in his category in 2026.
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“I’m fine, I had a lot of fun, I had a great time, thank God for doing this show and I hope I come back a winner…,” Paul added, anticipating that he would insist on the boxing matches. “I think my jaw is broken, but I played against one of the best in the world, he was a lot heavier than me, bigger, and I’m going to take a break, but I’m going to keep doing it…”
Britain’s control body has said it would not have approved the fight for safety reasons, and others have warned of the huge difference in level, size and strength between Paul and Joshua, putting the YouTuber at risk of serious injury.
The weighing on Thursday clearly showed the enormous weight advantage in favor of the Briton Joshua (1.98 m tall), who stopped the scales at 110 kilograms, twelve more than the 98 kg of Paul, who is also thirteen centimeters shorter. Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s long-time promoter, described the fight on Friday as a “catastrophic imbalance” even before the contracts were signed.
The fight was unequal, Joshua dominated from the start and Paul was only able to land a few punches that never got the Brit in trouble. Paul appeared extremely tired as early as the fifth round, the fight lasted eight rounds, and in the sixth round Joshua’s attack ended the fight, sending the American to the canvas for the entire count.
The thing is, it’s one thing for the show to, like the previous parody, take on a retired veteran like Mike Tyson, and quite another thing to deal with a former champion who may not be in his prime, but is close to it.
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