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many people who work in boxing The industry will surely tell you similar stories over the past weeks jake paulhave an amazing fight with anthony joshua Was declared. This has been a frequent occurrence, with questions such as checking punches on the boxer against the ropes; You’ve barely got to answer one – or do your best to answer it – before the same voice or someone else interrupts with a fresh question. One of the most recurring questions in all this is, of course, the following: Could Paul In fact Beat Joshua? can do This YouTuber turned boxer In fact Knock out the former two-time world heavyweight champion?
There is an argument for simply saying ‘no’ – for simply saying ‘no’ to writing and publishing. But the reality is that the questions and debates surrounding Paul vs. Joshua could end up being the most fun part of the fight. And there are some factors that arguably make this particular debate worthwhile. So, let’s get into it.
First: Paul believes he can defeat Joshua, and Rules allow KO In miami on fridayThis does not mean that Paul can or will do it, but whoever believes in Paul is here To collect a rumored £70 million And accept his fate as a memeWell, they are wrong.
If you’ve followed Paul’s 12-1 boxing venture closely, you’ll know this, but it was a sentiment that resonated Independent By Nakisa Biederian, the 28-year-old’s business partner at Most Valuable Promotions. The promoter cited Paul’s “delusional confidence”. As one of the American’s greatest assets (love Paul or hate him, it’s undeniable that his audacity has taken him far) and as a deciding factor in taking this fight with “AJ”.
then we come in Why Paul is confident he can win. This not only relates to the former Disney Channel actor’s confidence in his own power, which has seen him outpoint and knock out former UFC champions Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva respectively, but also to his belief in a perceived vulnerability in Joshua.
The 36-year-old Joshua has four professional losses to his name, two of which came via knockout, and Paul has referenced the debut more than once. “This is Andy Ruiz 2.0,” he has said. In 2019, Ruiz Jr. was a late replacement against Joshua and stunned him at Madison Square Garden, flooring him three times en route to an upset title win.
On that occasion, Joshua’s problem was over-eagerness; He knocked down Ruiz in the third round, but was careless in his pursuit of the finish, and was dropped by a left hook in the exchange immediately after defeating the underdog. Ruiz’s speed helped him score that near knockdown, and his next knockdown came later, when Joshua dropped him off the ropes under a sustained barrage. Joshua recovered during the next few rounds, but not enough, and he was susceptible to another left hook in the seventh frame – a punch that froze the Olympic gold medalist, setting up an overhand right and another long combination that dropped him. With this, Joshua’s American dream became a nightmare.
His only other stoppage loss came recently. On its last visit, in September 2024, the Briton was Lost four times to compatriot Daniel Dubois in the fifth roundIt may have been this exposure that, rightly or wrongly, encouraged Paul,
The first knockdown came very late in the first round, and may have been due to complacency; After hearing a 10-second clapper, Joshua stepped towards the ropes with his guard worryingly down, allowing Dubois to land a naked overhand right – no set-up, no pretense, AJ simply completely misjudged the distance and danger.
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The second knockdown came at the same time in the third round. Joshua, still looking dazed, was tagged by a familiar weapon: a left hook, putting him on an unstable ankle. Similar to the first knockdown, Joshua missed a right hand after exiting the clinch and landed a left, although this time Dubois took advantage immediately (his first round knockdown came after AJ used the same movement, but with a dead second before Dubois attacked).
The third knockdown, occurring in the fourth round, looked like a lapse in fairness, and a similar incident occurred later in the round. Was Ruled on a slip. But the last real knockdown came in the fifth round, as Joshua displayed the same overexertion that cost him against Ruiz.
After flailing to the body, Joshua caught Dubois caught unawares with a piston right cross, causing the younger man to fall away from the ropes to retreat. There, Joshua landed two more right hands, but Dubois caught them well, even landing a counter right after the second shot. Joshua tried to mix it up with an uppercut as his third attack, but it was a backhanded shot that was thrown naked – from too far, and AJ’s left arm was too low to protect him. This time Dubois’ right hand landed first, not after Joshua. Joshua collapsed to the canvas and, despite his admirable efforts to get back up, this particular punishment proved too much.
The only other defeat of Joshua’s career came against the great Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, when the Ukrainian stunned him with the same technique that AJ used to upset Dubois during their fight; Klitschko looked down but he threw high, a clean right cross spearing through Joshua’s guard as the Briton raced in vain to pick it up in time.
Undoubtedly, there will be readers who view the above 900 words as wasted analysis, wasted time, wasted effort. It would be foolish not to acknowledge that all of these fighters who troubled Joshua were elite veterans, and Paul needs to cleanly tag AJ for hurting him – an obvious mission, but perhaps an impossible one in itself.
More of a cruiserweight than a heavyweight, Paul believes he has the speed to emulate Ruiz against Joshua. But speed, without sufficient skill, only matters so much.
So, does Paul know something we don’t? Had he heard the stories about Joshua losing his chin before trying to fight this fight? That’s pure speculation; Given that Joshua’s training has been largely disrupted this year due to an elbow injury that required surgery in the spring, there may have been very little fight and no story to hear anyway. For what it’s worth, Paul’s own conflict stories include accounts of A black eye dealt with by Lawrence Okolie And Broken nose made even worse by Frank Sanchez,
Whatever the stories and questions are, Friday will provide the answers — and yes, those answers may come very quickly after the first bell, and they may not be the ones Paul wants.