Promoter Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua could “potentially” earn his “biggest payday” of his career fighting Jake Paul in early 2026. He states that if not for the money Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) can make from this fight, he’d never consider it.
Hearn says Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) is a “top 75 cruiserweight,” and he doesn’t think he has a chance of defeating the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua.
Joshua’s Biggest Career Paydays
- Oleksandr Usyk [rematch]: $75 million
- Andy Ruiz [rematch]: $60 million, per Sportingsnews
- Francis Ngannou: $50 million
- Andy Ruiz [first fight]: $25 million
- Wladimir Klitschko: $18.3 million
“That’s partly what everyone wants to see. That’s partly why people would tune in,” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to Australian Boxing Central, when asked if his reason for wanting Anthony Joshua to fight Jake Paul was so that he could “beat him down.”
The fans who would want to see Paul beaten would likely be from the UK, as they wouldn’t want to see their fighter, Joshua, humiliated by him. U.S fans wouldn’t care. They would back the underdog, Jake Paul, especially if he makes the build-up entertaining with his over-the-top theatrics.
Hearn’s View on Paul
“He’s been out of the ring for a year now,” said Hearn about Joshua. “He’s going to come back with some kind of fight. Is Jake Paul a warm-up fight? Not really. It can’t sit here and tell you, ‘This is a great fight. This is competitive.’ It’s not. It’s a top 75 cruiserweight fighting AJ. So, it’s not something we would ever look to make.”
The inactivity, recent brutal knockout loss to Daniel Dubois, and the advanced age of Joshua give Jake Paul a real shot at winning. Even if he is a “top 75 cruiserweight, as Hearn states, he’s much younger at 28 than the 35-year-old AJ, and he has the punching power that can capitalize on Joshua’s fragile chin. AJ hasn’t beaten a good heavyweight since his rematch with Andy Ruiz on December 7, 2019.
Even in that fight, Joshua wasn’t facing a good version of Ruiz, as he’d celebrated hard his seventh-round knockout win over AJ on June 1, 2019, and gained a lot of weight. For the rematch, Ruiz weighed 283 1/2 lbs and was too heavy and slow on his feet to get in punching range. Given Joshua’s lack of quality wins in the last six years, you can’t rule out an upset victory for Jake Paul.
The Biggest Payday Awaits
“I can’t sit back as someone that represents Anthony Joshua, sit back and not look at potentially the biggest payday of his career to fight Jake Paul,” said Hearn. “I know how big it’s going to be. It’s probably the biggest fight in boxing, bizarrely. And that’s the world we live in.”
Other than Tyson Fury, Jake is the biggest payday in the heavyweight division for Joshua. It wouldn’t be surprising if Joshua vs. Paul does better numbers than Joshua-Fury. However, Joshua would get a bigger payday against Fury because the Saudis would likely be involved.
“I think he thinks, ‘I’ll smash him,'” said Hearn when asked what Joshua thinks about the Paul fight. “What will happen is in the build-up, Jake would be wild, and Jake would get under his skin. Don’t forget that Jake has been saying, ‘He’s got no chin. He’s finished.’ The reality is, Anthony is not always this really nice guy. He’s a bad man as well.”
Jake Paul would make this the biggest fight for Joshua than any he’s had since his fight with 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2017. That fight wasn’t as big as it should have been, given Wladimir’s inactivity, age and previous loss to Fury.
