Former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has shed light on why he agreed to fight Jake Paul after spending 15 months away from the sport. Before stepping back, the 36-year-old was considered among the elite in boxing, having twice held the WBA, IBF, and WBO belts at the same time.<\/p>\n
Many fans were left puzzled as to why the British star chose to cut short his break to face someone still labelled by critics as a YouTuber-turned-fighter. However, since turning pro in 2018, Paul\u2014whose brother Logan is a WWE star\u2014has suffered just one defeat in 13 fights, a run that includes a unanimous-decision win over Mike Tyson.<\/p>\n
The pair are set to clash in Miami on December 19 at the Kaseya Center. And with questions still swirling around the timing of his return, Joshua has now made his motivations clear.<\/p>\n
Anthony Joshua Details Why He Came Back<\/p>\n
Speaking at Friday night\u2019s press conference, Joshua showed full respect for Paul. While debate rages about where Paul truly ranks in boxing, Joshua kept things straightforward, saying via Sky Sports:<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to Jake and his team for reaching out. I wanted to take a year away and refocus. I already planned to fight again, and this opportunity came up. It\u2019s huge, massive \u2014 Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua. It\u2019s a global event.\u201d<\/p>\n
When pressed on what had changed behind the scenes since his September 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois, Joshua revealed several adjustments aimed at ensuring a smooth return. \u201cI stepped away for 12 months and reset my vision board. I also streamlined my team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going full throttle with blinkers on. It took time, but I\u2019m back. Ben Davison won\u2019t be training me. I\u2019ve been working with Team Usyk. He\u2019s one of the best \u2014 in fact, he is the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether these changes will pay off will only become clear when the fight arrives next month. One thing is certain: Joshua will take home a staggering \u00a370 million \u2014 the biggest purse of his career \u2014 which undoubtedly factored into his high-profile return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has shed light on why he agreed to fight Jake Paul after spending 15 months away from the sport. Before stepping back, the 36-year-old was considered among the elite in boxing, having twice held the WBA, IBF, and WBO belts at the same time. Many fans were left puzzled …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55131,"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-55130","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-02-nov-2025-11-22-am-3251.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55130","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=55130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55132,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55130\/revisions\/55132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}