What\u2019s in it for the fighters?<\/strong><\/p>\nAnalysis by Sarah Shephard<\/p>\n
We saw just last weekend what money can do in boxing, when it pulled together two fighters in Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, who were previously fighting two or three weight classes apart. Now, it\u2019s putting a two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist in the ring with a boxing novice.<\/p>\n
![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/paul-chavez-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Paul beat Chavez Jr in his last fight in June (Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
From Joshua\u2019s point of view, it gives him a chance to put on the gloves and go through the motions of a big fight after more than a year out of the game. His promoter, Hearn, has made no secret of the fact they are pursuing a fight against Tyson Fury in 2026 but that is not one they want to go straight into without some form of warm-up bout. The fight against Paul is unlikely to test the Brit too much, so it was unsurprising to hear Turki Al-Sheikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia\u2019s General Entertainment Authority and arguably the most powerful figure in boxing, say during the Eubank Jr versus Benn fight on Saturday that Joshua will be fighting in Saudi in February.<\/p>\n
That fight is more likely to come against a more established heavyweight and provide Joshua with the challenge he needs to prepare for a bout against Fury.<\/p>\n
For Paul, this fight is his way of answering all the questions and jibes over his boxing CV, which at present features athletes from other sports and retired fighters. Joshua is very much an active heavyweight who, at 36, retains all the power that has helped him knock out 25 of his 32 opponents, including a devastating knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in March 2024.<\/p>\n
Is the fight safe?<\/strong><\/p>\nAnalysis by Sarah Shephard<\/p>\n
Should this be happening is the question that will be asked ad infinitum over the next four weeks. This is not an exhibition, like Paul\u2019s fight against Tyson but a professional fight over three-minute rounds in 10oz gloves.<\/p>\n
Paul weighed in for the Tyson fight \u2014 his only fight at heavyweight \u2014 at a career-biggest 227.2lb (103kg), while Joshua weighed in for his most recent fight against Dubois at 252.5lb (115kg). And in terms of height, there is around 5 inches between them with Joshua measuring 6ft 6in (198cm) and Paul 6ft 1in (185cm). So the size difference is not all that huge. Certainly not in comparison to the difference in experience, ability and skill.<\/p>\n
If Paul was not who he is, there is zero chance he would have the opportunity to take on an elite fighter like Joshua at this stage of his nascent boxing career. And that is for good reason; boxing is dangerous. There are (or should be) measures in place to keep it as safe as possible within that realm of danger.<\/p>\n
In this case, it seems that money, fame and star power count for more than any of those measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will take on YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul on December 19 at the Kaseya Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[32544,18,104402,19,17,132,20437,104403],"class_list":{"0":"post-185501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-global-sports","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-business","15":"tag-top-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115565833099586514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}