Anthony Joshua Next Fight: For the love of God, it’s Jake Paul

Anthony Joshua did not have the 2024 he would have envisaged. It started well, with a crushing KO over Francis Ngannou. But then the Olympic gold medalist came unstuck against Daniel Dubois in a huge upset. Every week since has brought speculation about AJ's next opponent. 

For the longest time, it looked like 'Gyspy King' Tyson Fury would occupy that role. But as Mick Jagger once warned us, you can't always get what you want. Read on for everything you need to know about Anthony Joshua's next fight.

Joshua had hit a run of excellent form. Following back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk, AJ rebounded with four victories. Those wins were becoming steadily more impressive too. 

A decision victory over Jermaine Franklin was workmanlike, but AJ showed flashes of his old self as he ground down Robert Helenius in seven rounds. By the time he walloped Otto Wallin in five rounds and Francis Ngannou, fresh off giving Tyson Fury fits, in two sessions he looked back to his best.

But Dubois undid over a year of good work last August, when he demolished Joshua at Wembley in defence of the IBF championship. The five-round pounding was the most comprehensive loss ever suffered by AJ. Ruiz had shocked him, Usyk had outboxed him but ‘Dynamite’ simply detonated him.

But still, you don’t spend a decade at the top of the sport and deliver some of the biggest nights in modern memory without wielding significant bargaining power. AJ might be coming off a humbling defeat, but there remains huge interest in his next move.

For a while, it looked like Joshua would stick to the habit of a lifetime and rematch Dubois immediately. The Watford man has always attempted to avenge his defeats. Joshua beat Andy Ruiz Jr in a rematch six months after the Mexican inflicted his first career loss. AJ also went straight back in with Usyk after that loss, albeit losing the return.

But Dubois would instead risk his IBF strap against the man it rightfully belonged to. Usyk knocked 'Dynamite' Daniel out at Wembley Stadium in July, needing just five rounds to restore the undisputed heavyweight crown. It feels unlikely that Dubois' comeback fight will be anything as dangerous as a Joshua rematch. Despite the ex-IBF king having beaten AJ in their first fight.

Like Joshua and Dubois, Fury lost in his own rematch to Usyk. The second fascinating fight between the pair was not without controversy, with the three 116-112 scorecards looking a little unfair on the Brit. But Usyk deserved his win, even if the fight was closer than 8-4 in his favour in terms of rounds. 

But that result leaves Fury at a crossroads. ‘The Gypsy King’ is out in the cold. For the first time since 2020, Fury will be heading into his next fight without a world heavyweight title belt.

Despite the lack of hardware on the line, Joshua-Fury would be a gigantic occasion. The best combat sports events are often about more than just championships. Take the Arturo Gatti vs Micky Ward trilogy. Considered the greatest trio of fights ever staged, none of the bouts had a world title belt on the line. The same is true of the first two bouts in Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton’s electric trilogy. It is the fights that make the belts, not the other way round.

Some would dismiss Fury vs Joshua as a fight to determine the best loser. It is a grim, binary way of looking at things. Given the achievements of AJ and ‘The Gypsy King’, it would be the most prestigious all-British heavyweight fight for decades. It would also answer the question of who was the clear second-best fighter of the era. Despite Usyk being a clear first, there is still an element of legacy on the line.

It is not as if the pair are washed-up. Until Dubois, Joshua was on a real hot streak. Fury has overcome everything the sport has to throw at him, Usyk aside. Fury and Joshua finally squaring off would be truly electrifying. 

But boxing never fails to disappoint. As a sport with no fixed fixturwe list or meritocratic tournament structure, the biggest fights often go unmade. Fury-Joshua edged ever closer to that precipice when it emerged in mid-November, via a report from The Ring's Mike Coppinger, that Joshua's likely next move would be a fight with social media irritant-turned-sort-of-boxer Jake Paul.

They call Jake 'The Problem Child'. Presumably the problem is the fact his record is built solely on boxing relics like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Mike Tyson, mis-placed MMA grapplers like Ben Askren or non-combatants like NBA star Nate Robinson. His one fight against a pro boxer who can still tie their own shoes was against Tommy Fury, who beat him.

Which makes the idea of him facing two-time unified heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua a ridiculous one. For a start, it is very un-Jake. The YouTube nuisance was preparing for an exhibition fight with reigning WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis. 'Tank' has never boxed in a professional bout above 140lbs. Jake routinely fights at or above the 200lb cruiserweight limit. An opponent with caveats who is at a huge physical disadvantage? Now that is a Jake Paul fight, folks.

But Davis pulled out due to a civil suit filed against him for domestic assault. Paul was shocked to find that Davis had been accused of such. Hard to believe that someone as terminally online as Paul had missed Davis being arrested for domestic assault in 2020, 2022 and July 2025, other violent crimes in 2017 and 2018 and allegedly causing a traffic incident in 2021. Who saw this coming? Not Jake, apparently.

So Paul had a venue to fill. Brock Lesnar is back in WWE and Joe Frazier is dead so Paul has had to go for option three. Surprisingly that is AJ, a fighter who ticks none of the usual Paul boxes. While he lost his last fight by knockout, it was a stadium-headlining IBF title fight. AJ is 36 and had won his previous four bouts with three stoppages before 'Dynamite' Dubois happened to him.

The influencer meets the Olympian at the Kaseya Center in Miami on December 19 live on Netflix. The bout will be a professional eight-round heavyweight bout that will appear on both men's records. Joshua is not allowed to weigh more than 245lbs for the bout, a weight he has not made since his 2022 loss to Usyk.

Does the fight make sense? Not really, for either of them. Paul risks his boxing experiment ending in an extreme chemical reaction, as Joshua's shattering shots meet his bearded chin. For AJ the sense is likely purely financial. His legacy, already underrated compared to domestic almost-rival Fury, gains nothing by pounding on an influencer that Tommy Fury beat.

But perhaps Joshua is just looking to cash out. Fury is the only fight that makes sense for him from a legacy perspective. Without it, why not retire with a mountain of money and two reigns as world champion on his ledger? Like Lennox Lewis before him, I think AJ will become more appreciated once he has left the ring. When the unfair comparisons to Fury fade. To paraphrase the memetic words of Rio Ferdinand, himself a pro boxer whose career never went further than a press conference, just enjoy them, man.

You can find all our latest boxing betting tips and analysis at our Betfred Insights Boxing page and our latest boxing odds here.