Anthony Joshua to fight Jake Paul in Netflix boxing showdown as date confirmed

Anthony Joshua is on the brink of finalising a deal to take on YouTube sensation Jake Paul in a pre-Christmas bout. Originally, Paul was set to go head-to-head with lightweight world champion Gervonta Davis this Friday, but the fight was called off following kidnap allegations against Davis by his former girlfriend. An exact date is due to be confirmed but the plan is for it to take place next month.

Now, 28-year-old Paul is gearing up to face ex-heavyweight king Joshua, 36, in Miami this December, with the fight set to be streamed live on Netflix. Joshua hasn't stepped into the ring since his crushing defeat by Daniel Dubois at Wembley last September. He views the lucrative showdown with Paul as a warm-up for a potential face-off with Tyson Fury next year. Paul has built his boxing record fighting former MMA stars, and his only notable opponent, Tommy Fury, dealt the social media star his sole loss in 2023.

Paul called out Joshua on his podcast in March when he said: "I want to fight Anthony Joshua because I know I will f****** beat Anthony Joshua's a**e. He doesn't have a chin, and he has no skill, and he is stiff. I love you, Anthony, and we are friends. But I want to fight you."

But the American, from Cleveland, Ohio, has only fought once in the heavyweight division. That was when he took on a 58-year-old Mike Tyson. Paul dropped to cruiserweight for his win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr back in June when he weighed in at 199.4 pounds.

He was at a career high of 227.2 pounds when he fought Tyson. By contrast, when he lost to Dubois last year, Joshua hit the scales at 252.5 pounds - giving him a huge size advantage unless Paul packs on the pounds in the coming weeks.

Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn said this week that Joshua could even fight on an undercard this year in order to get back in the ring - but he will now headline a fight with Paul instead. "We will make a decision this week on Anthony's next fight," he said. "If he fights this year, it's just gonna be a... You probably won't even hear about it, unless it's Jake Paul. We'll make that decision this week, but - outside of Jake Paul - if he fought this year, you really wouldn't know about it."

Paul's business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, said in August: "This would be pursued as a straight-up professional fight. I think there's certainly an experience gap between the two of them in terms of where they're at in their career.

"From my prospective, Joshua's an active heavyweight. The likelihood of Anthony Joshua being able to land a heavyweight punch is much higher than what Mike Tyson had. I want to give Jake as much time as possible to improve on his boxing skillset to be able to effectively neutralise that main attribute of Anthony Joshua.

"My ask of him is to wait longer to do it. But when an opportunity is there, sometimes if you don't take it, it never comes back."

While Joshua has previously labelled Paul "good for boxing" and added: "He has no amateur background and just jumped straight in. He's learning under pressure, and that will help him evolve quickly."