By: Sean Crose
By now it should come as a surprise to no one that Anthony Joshua ‘s vicious fight ending right against Jake Paul back on December 19th is Boxing Insider’s knockout of the year. Even those who haven’t seen the Joshua-Paul fight have seen that brutal knock out on social media. Yes, there had been a lot of damage dished out to Paul before the final blow came but wow that closing shot with something else. Whatever happens with Paul in the future he’s going to want to avoid getting hit like that again. The human body can only afford to take a few of those kinds of blows.
It’s understandable why some might not want Joshua to get Knock Out Of The Year honors. It isn’t like he was up against a ferocious foe. Certainly other powerful knockouts have occurred against tougher competition than Joshua faced on the 19th. Yet a knockout is a knockout is a knockout.. and Joshua knocked out Paul in brutal and memorable fashion. It’s actually hard to miss the imagery – some of it undoubtedly accentuated by AI – of Paul getting nailed with that right of Joshua’s. All one has to do is log on to social media.
What any of this means for Joshua’s career is frankly hard to tell. He made a boatload of money for taking care of business with Paul, that’s for sure. He also introduced himself to an even bigger audience than he’s used to.. that audience being millions and millions of Americans. Joshua is world renowned, but he’s never been particularly famous in the states. No doubt he’s more well known now than he was before he stepped inside of the ring with Paul. Now that Americans have taken the time to see the guy in action, they perhaps may be willing to again.
As for Paul, it’s hard to see where he’s going to go after this. He certainly has guts and he proved it fighting Joshua. It’s worth keeping in mind that he kept trying until the very end. One could say he tried by running, but at least he didn’t take a dive, quit on his stool or play dead. He was in it until he literally could fight no more. Such things are admirable, but they don’t make for career longevity when you’re taking the shots Paul took a few week’s back. He needs to map out his career smartly if he wants to keep boxing. Or perhaps he should stick to promoting, something he’s clearly very good at.
