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Reuters

Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua will bring another year of seismic shifts in boxing to an end in Miami on Friday night in a mismatch that illustrates how much the sport has changed, with online fame now almost as important as punching power.
YouTuber-turned-pugilist Paul, who is stepping up from cruiserweight, is seeking to burnish his reputation against the 36-year-old British former heavyweight champ, who was knocked down four times as he lost his most recent fight, an IBF heavyweight title bout with Daniel Dubois in September 2024.
Channelling former boxing great Muhammad Ali, Paul said: “You know, it’s boxing, boxing skill, boxing on the outside. He’s obviously going to come forward, bring the pressure, be the bigger man. And it’s just being slick, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
While Ali took on a few odd-but-lucrative engagements in his time, such as a mixed-rules fight with professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976, he would hardly recognise boxing’s new world, even if money was still the main motivator.
Joshua, whose career began an alarming slide after he lost his four heavyweight belts to Andy Ruiz in a shocking upset in 2019, has been promised a reputed US$50 million plus bonuses for the fight, which will be shown on streaming platform Netflix.

The Netflix audience brings together diehard boxing fans who will be eager to see what Joshua has left in the tank, and youthful admirers of Paul, with the former hoping Joshua wins convincingly.
“I heard people say like, ‘Oh, I’m not really into boxing, but I’m watching this fight’,” Joshua told a press conference on Wednesday. “But no one’s really coming up to me saying anything about Jake, or they want me to knock him out. Just positive vibes.”
Leveraging his fame, Paul’s path in boxing has taken him through former basketball player Nate Robinson and retired MMA fighters Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva, as well as a 57-year-old Mike Tyson.
Paul said he was unfazed by his latest challenge: “I’m ready. I want his hardest punches.”
However, Swedish heavyweight Otto Wallin, who retired on his stool when he fought Joshua in Riyadh two years ago, said Joshua possessed the kind of power that could see Paul get seriously hurt in the fight.
“When you’re in that ring, it’s a dangerous place to be, and anything can happen,” Joshua said ominously. “You hope your opponent leaves the ring safely, but if they don’t, you know, you still have to go to bed knowing that you’ve just done your job.
“That’s my job. We fight. We have a licence to kill. Many people don’t understand it, but this is what my job is.”

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Paul still believes that he belongs in the ring with a boxer light years ahead of him in terms of reputation and skill.
“I believe he [Joshua] is locked in and knows that this could potentially be the biggest loss, and will be the big loss of his career, and he has so much to lose in this fight,” Paul said.
Paul, who earlier this week said he wanted to create the biggest upset in sporting history by defeating Joshua, also shared a wish list of future opponents, including Tyson Fury, Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez.
“No one’s done more for the sport of boxing in the last decade than myself,” Paul said.
“I think if people really cared about boxing, they’d want me to win.”


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Boxing

YouTuber fancies his chances in Netflix-streamed bout against ex-heavyweight champion, who ominously says boxers have ‘licence to kill’


YouTuber fancies his chances in Netflix-streamed bout against ex-heavyweight champion, who ominously says boxers have ‘licence to kill’.


Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua mismatch latest show of how much boxing landscape has changed

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}YouTuber fancies his chances in Netflix-streamed bout against ex-heavyweight champion, who ominously says boxers have ‘licence to kill’

YouTuber fancies his chances in Netflix-streamed bout against ex-heavyweight champion, who ominously says boxers have ‘licence to kill’