Anthony Joshua is without a doubt one of the greatest boxers of his generation. The Brit is 28-4 with 25 wins via knockout. He’s a two-time unified heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist.
One of Joshua’s defeats, to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019, is considered among the most shocking in the sport’s history.
Outside the ring, Joshua is among the most popular athletes in the world with 16.4 million followers on Instagram and brand endorsement deals with the likes of Under Armour and Hugo Boss.
Joshua says money isn’t the only reason he’s now decided to fight Jake Paul — a social media star-turned-boxer — on Friday night in Miami on Netflix.
“”I saw what this meant,” Joshua said about competing on Netflix. “It’s not even my biggest payday; it’s not about money. For me, it was more about the opportunity. I had to showcase my skills to the world.”
The 36-year-old is coming off a knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2024. That defeat has stuck with Joshua, who took more than a year away from the sport to reset and get back into the mindset that made him one of the best fighters of all time.
“When you lose, you tend to take a deeper look at yourself and take time to figure out what went wrong,” he said on his YouTube channel. “I had to look at the reasons why I lost. And I said to myself: ‘I think I need a bit of time.’”
That time is now against a YouTuber who has taken boxing by storm in recent years.
Paul, who tops Joshua with 28.2 million Instagram followers and 20.9 million YouTube subscribers, turned pro in 2020. He has amassed a 12-1 record with impressive power and skill, though most of his victories have come against either aging MMA fighters (like Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz) or boxers well past their prime (Julio César Chávez and Mike Tyson, when he was 58).
Joshua is by far Paul’s toughest test to date — a legitimate star not far removed from greatness.
“I like to challenge myself. I like to take on the biggest, the best. I said, ‘Anyone, anytime, any place’ — I truly mean that,” Paul said at a news conference. “No one ever thought that this would be possible, that we would be here, when I first started boxing, and no one thinks I’m going to win. So join the list and be ready to be shocked.”
To his credit, Joshua isn’t taking the fight lightly. He said he left the U.K. to avoid distractions locally and has been training with heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk’s team in Spain.
Asked whether an opponent with just five years’ experience should even be in the ring with him, Joshua immediately shot it down.
“I could sit up here and try and address all the things that Jake doesn’t do good, but I’m fighting the Jake that’s going to do everything good on Dec. 19th,” he said. “So let me focus on that. He’s a good person, does his thing, [has a] great team around him, puts in the work, and that’s why he’s sitting here now. Anyone out there in the world that works harder than the next person deserves to be a front-runner, and he’s a front-runner in the boxing game right now.”