When his exhibition boxing match against Gervonta “Tank” Davis fell apart, Jake Paul was left looking for an opponent. He found one in the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and former two-time unified world boxing champion Anthony Joshua.
Paul went from facing Davis, who he outweighed by 65 pounds, in an exhibition bout to taking on a top tier heavyweight pugilist. Paul and Joshua will clash inside the Kaseya Center in Miami in a sanctioned, professional heavyweight bout contested over 8, three-minute rounds with 10 ounce gloves on Dec. 19.
Former UFC fighter and inaugural “BMF” champion Jorge Masvidal recently weighed in on the matchup and thinks most want to see Paul soundly defeated.
“If AJ goes out there and executes Jake Paul in under a minute, this won’t add anything or take anything away from AJ’s legacy. But it will add clout and numerous more bags that he’s gonna get, and the folklore tale, right? Because everybody wants to see Jake get whooped like that, especially for what he did to Mike Tyson,” Masvidal told Thunderpick.
“He’s gonna be a folklore hero. It’s definitely gonna add to the folklore of AJ, for generations to come. These 14-year-old kids that adore Jake Paul, when they’re 28 years old, they’ll still be talking about AJ.”
Masvidal considers Joshua to be the superior boxer, but warned that Paul could win if the Brit doesn’t take the fight seriously.
“There’s a disparity in skill set but it’s still a fight. Jake [Paul] could always just land the shot. AJ could not be taking him seriously whatsoever, not training, not doing anything, partying harder than ever. And then go out there and maybe shit the bed,” Masvidal said.
“It could happen, it’s fighting. If there’s a sport where it could happen, it’s in combat, we see it all the time. So, it’s not out of the question that he could win, but it’s just crazy to put them in there against a destroyer like AJ,” Masvidal continued.
“They’re gonna get a bag and notoriety from it. So why not? When else is Jake gonna get a chance like this. Maybe it wasn’t the best circumstances for him, but who knows if he’d ever get another shot at something this grand, so I commend him. I take my hat off to him. You’re gonna get in there with fucking AJ. God be with you.”
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Every time Paul steps in the ring, allegations of fight fixing flood online comment sections and are uttered by fighters and critics. Masvidal isn’t one of them, but believes it will be obvious if the fix is in.
““I don’t think it’s rigged, but if it is rigged, we’re going to find out come fight day. It’ll be written all over the screen. We’ll be able to see,” he said.
“We know the speed AJ moves. With Mike Tyson, with all that stuff they said about Tyson, we’re talking about someone that’s almost 60 years old. The reaction time, the frustration that he had – biting his glove – because he couldn’t hit Jake. There are a lot of these things that you could kind of say with Tyson, because he is almost 60 years old. But with AJ, there can’t be none of that. You can’t have none of this weird stuff happening because we’ll know. The people will know.”
“Anthony Joshua’s a monster and Jake wouldn’t even serve as a sparring partner for him,” added Masvidal. “But we’re about to find out what happens. I don’t know what’s going on. But if something weird happens, I will let the public know, because there’s only one way that fight’s supposed to go.”
