Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua vs. Jake Joseph Paul - Judgement Day, Dec 19th - Discussion Thread.

A former world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, agrees to fight an undersized Youtuber who has only fought bums and has-beens, in Jake Paul.

Forget legacy. Forget any respect for the sport. This is purely and simply a money grab. On that, none of us will disagree.

Is this the biggest sellout in boxing history?

 

Mayweather vs McGregor is up there, too. An MMA lightweight fighter on his pro boxing debut, fighting a welterweight HOFer in a licensed boxing match who would've still been pretty much near the top of the P4P list if he hadn't retired 18 months earlier. It also kick-started these joke fights in the modern era. Paul actually has more experience in a pro ring than McGregor does, so I wouldn't actually say it's much worse than that. But I do think Joshua-Paul could be the end of the line here, and Paul is going to get badly hurt.

 

Ali did countless exhibitions as well, didn't he?

Let the man who likely sacrificed a lot of his elderly brain power and cognitive function earn his money, even if he has loads.

 

No boxer has ever been offered such money for such easy work though

 

Serrano vs Taylor was one of the best matches of the decade so far, better than 99% of the men's fights this decade. Saying it is crap doesn't cut it anymore; that argument would've worked in 2015, but not now, the sport has moved forward. Jake Paul's only redeeming feature in the sport is his championing of women's boxing.

If you had a female relative, a sister, or a daughter who enjoys boxing, knows how to defend herself against a creep because of her boxing training, and enjoys seeing women boxers properly represented on the biggest stage next to the men, you'd probably see it through a different lens like I do. Can't please everyone, I suppose.

 

Im fine buddy

 

I had Mayweather-McGregor the clubhouse leader til this farce came along.

But McGregor was a born fighter, all-be-it not a boxer and that 'fight' was cleverly promoted as the battle of the codes. The champion boxer versus the champion UFC fighter.

What is this by comparison? The champion boxer versus the Youtuber who has fought bums, has-beens and never-wases.

No sorry, this is worse than Mayweather-McGregor. A whole other level worse.

 

I see a knockout as very difficult here.....I think it will end on points with a victory for Joshua.

 

The key word there is 'exhibitions'. This is a sanctioned boxing match and like the Mike Tyson farce, it will appear on their records.

 

Fury V Ngannou was way worse because Fury was actually a world champion at the time.

Joshua has been inactive for 18 months and has managed to cobble together an easy fight for a record purse. Can't blame him.

 

Correct and that's precisely why it is a sell-out. The biggest one ever IMO.

 

Fury-Ngannou was a non-title fight between 2 genuine fighters - even if Ngannou's experience was in the octagon - and as we saw, Ngannou was quite capable and did himself proud.

This is a former world heavyweight champion fighting a Youtuber who has fought bums, has-beens and never-wases.

No sorry, this is worse than Fury-Ngannou. A whole other level worse.

 

Yeah, actually, I forgot that lightweight in UFC is basically welterweight in boxing. Either way, the fact that McGregor had never boxed professionally before makes it much worse than Paul, I think. McGregor's timing, power, technique, and stamina were all completely off because he hadn't had the chance to adjust to boxing.

In Paul's defense we have seen him do 8 and 10 rounds. While it has been against club level fighters like Tommy Fury who he lost to, he's still actually got a lot more experience as a pro boxer than McGregor did, and Mayweather is a much better fighter than Joshua P4P. Both of them are joke fights though and will do untold damage to the sport for years to come.

 

On that much we do agree.

 

I don't agree. Fury only had one fight in 2023 and it was against a guy in his professional debut. It was a shameful thing to do when you're WBC champion and there were so many other great fights available.

Joshua V Jake Paul is very silly but it's not actually taking away from a proper fight. It's not like we were going to get Joshua V Kabayel next month but they pivoted to Paul. For that reason it doesn't really bother me.