Following humiliation at the hands of Daniel Dubois in 2024, Joshua stepped away from the spotlight. Undertook surgery and stayed away from the fight game that made him. A belated fight Tyson Fury now possible. Jake Paul offers Joshua much-needed exposure therapy following the PTSD of the knockout.
There is much in the world these days that confounds logic. Be it sporting, political or otherwise. Anthony Joshua fighting on NETFLIX versus a former YouTube personality in a fully fledged prize fight is an astonishing example of the phenomenon. At this point, with the fight just days away, the story of how this outcome was reached could be regarded as redundant. But analysis of the context of the two meeting is irresistible.
By any metric, any viewpoint this is a preposterous match. Be it size, pedigree, experience, power, skill. No revisionism about Joshua, no projection of Paul's 'dedication' can avert educated eyes from the truth.
An interesting perspective to use to illustrate the lunacy of the matchmaking from a sporting point of view, ignoring the commercial viability the two names provide, is to take note of their past and the divergence of their experience over the last decade. Jake Paul's television debut came on Disney in the first episode of teen-orientated show Bizaardvark. Paul played a character called Dirk Mann, a youngster who boasted his own fledgling online outlet called DareMeBro. His first appearance was watched by 2.4m Americans on June 24th 2016. He would remain a fixture for two years.
The following night, the 25th June 2016, over in London, England, Anthony Joshua defended his IBF World Heavyweight title versus the unbeaten 255-pound, 6ft-8 American Dominic Breazeale, knocking the giant out in the 7th round.
9 and half years later. The same blond haired 'Dirk Mann', now with a beard and a dozen barely credible 'fights' against the scared, the geriatric and the hapless and apathetic, will try to leap the chasm that exists between them. Canyon may be a better descriptive. It is so large Evil Knieval may have taken one look and walked back to his Winnebago. There is a similar level of jeopardy too. Paul may well find the fall, long, dark and lonely.
The bounty for Joshua is multiple. A purse disproportionate to the risk, which is essentially zero, and the opportunity to work his way past the ghosts of his loss to Dubois in late 2024. It is those ghosts, and their haunting whispers which must be overcome if Joshua is to have one last run at either the championship, or more likely, the overdue encounter with Tyson Fury. They pose a greater risk than the elbow surgery he undertook in May this year or the 15 month period of inactivity he leaves to take this fight.
Following his loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019 he has never been quite the same, their rematch, which Joshua won widely on the cards, was littered with clinching and a sense of trepidation from the once dominant King. Ruiz was conspicuously ill-prepared but still, Joshua remained cautious and nervous. The Dubois defeat was humbling and there were similarly conspicuous signs of distress and disorganisation when the punches began to rain down. Punch resistance, confidence, grit dissolving as Dubois rampaged.
The Jake Paul fight permits Joshua to walk through the various stages of a fight, from promotion, to weigh in, to ring walks and to a contest - of sorts. It is a type of catharsis not usually available with out much greater risk. At his point, any competent heavyweight presents risk to Joshua who wrestles with those ghosts, increasing susceptibility to punches and the search for certainty of purpose. That vast Fury purse is closer than it has been before. Risk now, well, is a risky business.
Paul offers no such threat. Just a little therapy session and a lot of money.