Heavyweight icon Anthony Joshua took to social media just minutes after his December 19 showdown with Jake Paul was officially confirmed. Both Paul and Netflix released a fight poster announcing that the pair will headline at the Kaseya Center in Miami \u2014 and notably, the graphic described the matchup as a \u201cprofessional heavyweight bout,\u201d shutting down speculation that it might be an exhibition.<\/p>\n
Paul had originally been preparing to face Gervonta \u201cTank\u201d Davis, but that fight collapsed less than two weeks out after the WBA lightweight champion was charged in a domestic violence case. Following the cancellation, Paul\u2019s team vowed to secure a new opponent before the end of 2025. In Joshua, the YouTube star has taken on by far the most dangerous test of his 13-fight career.<\/p>\n
Joshua hasn\u2019t boxed since his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois last September, but promoter Eddie Hearn recently admitted that a clash with Paul would be the ideal start to AJ\u2019s comeback.
\n\u201cWe were planning an eight-round tune-up on some undercard this year,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect it to be Jake Paul \u2014 but this is 50 times the money we were set to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua brings huge knockout power, having stopped 25 of his 32 opponents. His demolition of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou \u2014 leaving him unconscious \u2014 shows exactly how serious a threat he is.<\/p>\n
Anthony Joshua\u2019s Three-Word Reaction to Jake Paul Fight<\/p>\n
After the fight announcement went live, Joshua posted a blunt three-word message on Twitter:
\n\u201cHe\u2019s loco mhen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meaning \u201cHe\u2019s crazy, man,\u201d the comment reflects what many fans already think \u2014 that Paul may be out of his depth taking on one of the era\u2019s top heavyweights. Paul has built his boxing career mostly against aging former champions and MMA legends like Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz and Tyron Woodley. His only bout against an active boxer ended in defeat to Tommy Fury.<\/p>\n
Even with Joshua no longer at his absolute peak, Paul is taking an enormous risk. Whether you like him or not, he deserves credit if he goes through with a full professional bout. The event is expected to draw massive global attention for Netflix \u2014 though once the bell rings, it may not last long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heavyweight icon Anthony Joshua took to social media just minutes after his December 19 showdown with Jake Paul was officially confirmed. Both Paul and Netflix released a fight poster announcing that the pair will headline at the Kaseya Center in Miami \u2014 and notably, the graphic described the matchup as a \u201cprofessional heavyweight bout,\u201d shutting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/mixcollage-04-nov-2025-07-58-am-5765-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54817,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54815\/revisions\/54817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}