Joey’s Corner: Is Jake Paul a boxer? Should AJ be a boxer?

It happened and nobody can prove otherwise. Jake Paul boxed Anthony Joshua on Friday, December 19 and got knocked out for his troubles. ‘The Problem Child’ lasted five entire rounds before succumbing in the sixth. 

Did it prove Paul is a real boxer? Did it whet anybody’s appetite for Joshua vs Tyson Fury? Will it live longer in the memory than a kiss under the Mistletoe? Read on for my summation of an event that just sort of… happened. Seconds out, this is Joey’s Corner.

Last week I said that any form of resistance and resilience from Paul in the face of this test would be packaged as a win. That much it was. David Haye, the two-weight world champion from Bermondsey, was on commentary and he vehemently wanted the first round given to Paul. But the influencer’s reluctance in that opening stanza would have seen a referee’s stern plea to throw some f**king punches from any of Britain’s colourful array of small hall referees.

This article is not designed to kick a wounded dog while he’s down. Paul took his lumps in there and asked Joshua enough questions to ward off a fight so short you could fit it within the length of a snackable TikTok clip. 

Largely, ‘El Gallo’ danced. He did the move without the stick. He was evasive while Joshua neglected to be invasive. That was the key issue. Paul lived up to the reputation of a far-below average pro boxer, something I would not have even deigned to call him when he was still feasting on UFC alums and once-great corpses. But AJ did not come close to looking like the two-time unified heavyweight kingpin. Or the Olympic gold medalist from the indelible summer of London 2012. Or even the post-Usyk resurgent AJ, who steadily racked up wins before the Daniel Dubois reality check last year.

Joshua looked like a fighter reluctant to engage. Worried, unnecessarily, about what might come his way. Some will point to the pre-fight prattle that this fight was somehow ‘scripted’ and that Joshua simply fulfilled his end by ‘carrying’ his underskilled foil in the early going. 

After all, was this not the man who tore into the last non-boxer he faced? While ‘Gypsy King’ Fury almost fell foul of Francis Ngannou, AJ roasted the former UFC Heavyweight Champion like a plump Christmas goose.

But I put it to you that the AJ that shocked, rocked and stopped Ngannou is not the man who appeared across the ring from the blonde kid in the Hulkamania Forever jacket on Friday night. I now believe that the Dubois loss took something from Joshua that he might not get back.

That fight at Wembley in August 2024 was for the IBF heavyweight championship. A hard-earned title shot, with Joshua racking up four victories and three knockouts since losing the second time to Usyk. The Ukrainian had shuddered his psyche enough that Joshua had an unfortunate post-fight, belt-flinging meltdown. But on the night, AJ had boxed well enough. Better than in their first meeting. Better than most in the face of Usyk, including the twice-stopped Dubois.

This is a sport of the finest of margins. Joshua looked at his most dangerous just seconds before Dubois dispatched him in the fifth round. One more punch from the towering Watford warrior and Friday doesn’t happen. AJ goes down as a three-time champion. He might have even tempted Fury before now, with the promise of the IBF heavyweight belt on the line.

And ultimately that is what all this has been about. For Paul and his army of followers, Friday was the climax. Not the conclusion in my view. I think the peacocking ‘Problem Child’ will box again. But it was the full stop, in permanent ink, on his realistic chances of becoming a world class proposition as a boxer.

But for Joshua, this fight was a step on the road. If the reports are to be believed, it was phase one of a three-point plan. Originally, according to Eddie Hearn, AJ was set for a warm-up in Saudi Arabia last month, but it was replaced with this lucrative showdown. The talk is that he will take one more fight in the New Year and box Fury around the summertime. I hope not.

If Fury-AJ is the fight then make the fight. Friday was a compelling argument against a delay. We do not need to drag this out. With Joshua’s tentative display against the most inexperienced fighter he has faced since his earliest amateur fights and Fury’s vulnerabilities, as seen against Ngannou and Usyk, these two may not hold up to further scrutiny. 

If it is going to happen, and surely that clamour is reduced after Joshua’s slower-than-expected destruction of a YouTuber, better to strike while the iron is at room temperature. Either man, or both, flattering to deceive in warm-up fights will not sell DAZN subscriptions, I’m afraid.

As for Paul, this is far from the end. I have been deeply critical of his boxing journey. Unmoved by his knockout win over basketball player Nate Robinson. Bored sh*tless by his decision victories over Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva. I rolled my eyes so hard Specsavers cleared their schedule to repair the damage when he out-pointed the pointless Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. 

But Friday night has me ready to admit something I have never admitted before. Jake Paul is a boxer. Jake. Paul. Is. A. Boxer.

I am as sickened as you. But his efforts in surviving against Joshua showed an ability to defend himself at all times. His footwork to evade the lethargic legend would not look out of place at York Hall on a mid-week card. The single shots he threw were rare but often well-timed. Imagine telling someone when the shock-haired social media star started boxing that one day he would last six seconds with Joshua, never mind into the sixth round. Any assertion that the Disney Channel alum would land punches on the Olympic giant would have attracted more laughs than The Joker holding a gas canister.

When I call Jake a boxer, I do so while scoffing at the fact he is ranked at cruiserweight by the execrable WBA. This is not a world class fighter. Were he from Crawley rather than Cleveland, he would lack the necessary acumen to land a Southern Area title. But I have seen worse professional boxers than Jake Paul. He has earned the right, finally, to count himself as one. 

AJ has earned the right to headline a Riyadh Season mega-event against Fury. Anything short of a knockout loss at the uneducated hands of Paul would have kept that ship on course. Whether it will sell is the question. Kell Brook and Amir Khan proved that nostalgia pays back in 2022, so it probably will do the financial necessaries. 

But is it a fight that proves anything in 2026? Perhaps it proves the same thing that Jake Paul’s continued ascension does. That personalities, superstars and storylines pull in the punters better than any amount of skill, ring craft and world class pugilism ever could.

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