On December 19, Jake Paul will stop being just "a YouTuber who fights legends" and will step in against a true heavyweight – former world champion Anthony Joshua. The billing sounds big, but the closer we get to the fight, the clearer it becomes that the gap in level and size is so huge that even Paul's fans have to ask themselves whether their idol has gone a step too far.
Size Duel: Joshua And Paul In Different Weight Universes
Under the contract, Joshua must make the 111,1 kg limit – a range he already hit in both of his fights with Oleksandr Usyk, the rematch with Andy Ruiz and the bout with Joseph Parker. For Anthony, that is a familiar, comfortable heavyweight weight.
Paul does not have a strict weight cap at all, but his anthropometrics alone show how much he trails his opponent. He is 185 cm tall compared to Joshua's 198 cm, and his reach is 193 cm against 208 cm. Formally, Jake is a cruiserweight, competing in the division up to 90,7 kg, and has simply been moving gradually above the category that used to be normal for him.
The highest number on the scales in his career is 103,1 kg, registered before the fight with Mike Tyson. Now once again he has roughly a month to put on muscle mass, but there is still a huge gulf between him and Joshua's natural size.
From Jokes About "Little" Gervonta To The Reality Of The Heavyweight Division
Not so long ago, Paul was happily mocking Gervonta Davis's dimensions. For the exhibition bout that never took place, Jake's weight limit was set at 88,5 kg. Davis, meanwhile, is 19 cm shorter, his reach is 22 cm shorter, and the last time Gervonta stepped into the ring he did so as a lightweight – in the division up to 61,1 kg.
Back then Paul was more than happy to troll his opponent: he said that Davis was angry because he wasn't tall enough to ride the roller coasters at Disneyland and that he "genuinely felt sorry for the little guy". Now the roles seem to have reversed: the "little one" in the memes looks more like Jake himself – at least if you put him side by side with the massive Anthony.
Believe In A Paul Knockout? The List Of Supporters Is Loud
For all the skepticism in the boxing community, Paul has plenty of high-profile supporters. He himself gladly lists those backing him: his father is sure his son can knock Joshua out, and Logan Paul, Tyson Fury, Oscar De La Hoya and Nate Diaz are all in his corner. Add to that Jake's own team, which for obvious reasons believes in the success of the project tentatively titled "Beating The Former World Champion".
At the press conference, one of the journalists recalled Fury's loud promise to put a million pounds on Paul to win and suggested that Joshua enter into a public wager too. But Anthony reacted coolly: he said he did not care about money; in his own words, he had not come here to play at betting, but simply to do his job, pick up his cheque and switch his focus to the next opponent.
Joshua And The Usyk School: Spanish Camps For Progress
An important detail of Joshua's preparation is that he has been working side by side with Oleksandr Usyk's team for several months now. Anthony does not hide that London's noise and obligations distract him, so the offer to join the Ukrainian camp came at just the right time.
They have held several full training camps in Spain. Joshua openly calls Usyk one of the best boxers on the planet and stresses that it is not just about a brilliant champion, but also about the people around him. That is exactly why he reached out to this team – to see from the inside how the kind of work is built that turns a strong athlete into a world-class phenomenon.
The Countdown Has Begun: A Month That Will Decide A Lot
There is less than a month left until fight night, and each man has his own race to run. Paul has to do more than simply gain weight; he needs to keep the speed and explosive power that give him any chance at all of imposing some kind of pressure. Joshua, for his part, has to approach a fight in which he is the overwhelming favorite carefully: there is a big risk of looking bad even in victory if the audience does not see the domination they are expecting.
The Paul–Joshua bout already looks like an experiment at the intersection of show business and top-level boxing. The question is whether it will turn into yet another hype project with a predictable outcome, or whether the world will really see an upset that people will remember for much longer than the jokes about roller coasters and differences measured in centimeters. We will get the answer on December 19.
