By: Sean Crose
Like it or not, Anthony Joshua-Jake Paul is currently the biggest fight in boxing. Don’t expect it to be a long drawn out battle, though, at least if Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, is right in his prediction of the fight. “He is a top 50, in the world cruiserweight,” Hearn said rather dismissively of Paul in an interview with Sky Sports. “He is a legitimate cruiserweight now. I just don’t think he’s world class and I don’t think there’s any non-world class cruiserweight that can step up to heavyweight and beat Anthony Joshua.” Hearn even went so far as to suggest a Paul victory on December 19th would spell the end of boxing.
“Maybe I’m wrong,” he said. “If I’m wrong, I think my time’s up. Not just AJ and me retire, I think we should all retire. So AJ the weight of boxing is on your shoulders, my man!” The truth is that Hearn is presenting this fight as an act of pure destruction, plain and simple. “I really believe this is going to be a straightforward obliteration,” Hearn said . “This is a real fight. This is a sanctioned contest.” Hearn then addressed the rumors that the fight will be somehow fixed. “It is completely illegal to have any kind of agreement of how the fight would play out,” he said.
The bottom line? Hearn sees Paul as being way, WAY over his head against former world heavyweight champion Joshua. “Within less than a minute of that fight he (Paul) is going to think to himself: ‘What on earth have I done here?’ And more importantly: ‘What am I going to do?’” added Hearn
“There is absolutely no escape for Jake Paul in this fight… you will find out very quickly what this game is all about. And it will not be pleasant for you…AJ, he’s got no interest in hanging around. He’s not capable of doing that,” said Hearn. “He can’t do it because the minute he smells weakness, the minute he smells blood, he’s letting his hands go…and the minute he lets his hands go in this fight, there’s a major problem for Jake Paul.
So how long does Hearn expect the fight to last? “I would say two rounds is fair for Anthony Joshua,” the Brit promoter concluded. “I would be disappointed if AJ didn’t get him out of there in two rounds.” Although boxing is a sport where virtually anything can happen, it’s admittedly hard to see Paul emerging victorious this time. The elements of size, power and class all favor Joshua. A Paul victory might literally be the biggest shock since Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson almost 35 years ago.
