Fears for Jake Paul have risen even further ahead of his fight with Anthony Joshua after the British heavyweight showed off his very ripped physique on the weekend.
The unlikely opponents go head-to-head at the Kaseya Center in Miami on December 19 with a prize pot worth a whopping £140million set to be split evenly.
The professionally sanctioned bout will see 6ft 6in Joshua and 6ft 2in Paul contest eight three-minute rounds if it goes the distance, but few expected that to be the case.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has admitted he and Joshua will have no choice but to retire if the Brit doesn’t ‘obliterate’ Paul, who is more famed for his exploits on YouTube than in the ring and previously lost to Tyson Fury‘s little brother, Tommy.
Hearn has also warned Paul that he could ‘get seriously hurt’ against the taller and heavier Joshua, who boasts a reach some six inches longer than the American.
And concerns for the welfare of the 28-year-old brother of Logan Paul have now increased after fans were given a glimpse of AJ’s physique less than three weeks out from the contest.
Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua go head-to-head at the Kaseya Center in Miami on December 19
Concerns have now grown for Paul after his British opponent showed off his very ripped physique on X
Promoting the fight, Joshua posted photos flexing his muscles on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the ominous caption, ‘There is no tomorrow’, and a host of fans took to the comments section.
‘Please don’t sell out. Knock this guy out. Sure he might be able to box a bit, but there’s levels to this game,’ one wrote.
‘The intensity in that look says it all. December 19th can’t come soon enough! The whole world will be watching this unfold. Your comeback story has been nothing short of inspiring,’ another penned.
While one more posted: ‘It’s lose lose for Jake. If he wins it confirms the rigged theories. If he loses, well he loses. The best case scenario is for him to lose but put up a great fight.’
Joshua has weighed more than 250lbs in each of his last five fights and is thought to need to drop 20lbs to reach the 245lbs weight limit for the fight later this month.
He’s not fought in more than a year since his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, but Hearn is confident his boxer will make the weight class.
‘I spoke to [Joshua] and he was sitting at 265 pounds or something like that. I think I told Nakisa that he was 290 pounds or something like that,’ he told BBC 5 Live.
‘I said I’m not interested in balloon gloves and two-minute rounds but he said it was a real fight. I asked if it was 10 rounds or eight rounds, they said fine to eight.
AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn has sensationally claimed he and the Brit will retire if they lose the bout
Joshua hasn’t stepped into the ring since his loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2024
Hundreds of fans took to the comments section of AJ’s post to give their opinion on his physique
‘They said: “The only thing is that Jake will weigh about 220 pounds and we want AJ to come down in weight.”
‘He’s a heavyweight and hasn’t cut weight before. They said: “Look we’re not being funny and it’s not that we need an advantage but we need you to have some disadvantage.”‘
Many had speculated that his return could be against Tyson Fury in a fight which has been the talk of much speculation in recent years, however AJ announced his next opponent would be Paul earlier this month.
Joshua has adjusted his training set-up for his big return, working alongside the team behind two-time unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk, who beat him on points in 2021 and 2022.
It’s a decision which has drawn criticism from some quarters, in particular from British boxer Dillian Whyte.
The 37-year-old, who has faced AJ twice in his career, claimed his former rival is ‘lost’ heading into the Paul fight.
Dillian Whyte delivered a scathing verdict on former world champion Anthony Joshua’s career, claiming he is ‘lost’ at the moment
‘It seems like he’s wandering, he’s a bit lost, it seems like he’s looking for something that he’s not going to find in a boxing trainer,’ Whyte said. ‘He needs to find it within himself, deep down within himself. No boxing trainer can help him with it.’
‘He seems lost at the moment. He’s over here training with one guy and then next he’s over there training with Usyk. I mean bro, I’m not going to go and train with Ben Davison now because I lost to Moses Itauma.
‘You don’t go training with Usyk’s trainer because you lost to Usyk. You have to find what works best for you. Usyk’s got a completely different style so why does he think that’s going to work for him?
‘Obviously you can have experience, skills and what not but it’s confidence. If you’re not confident, there is no point going into the fight. I am always confident, I always believe in myself but sometimes you need extreme confidence and AJ doesn’t have that at the moment.’
