Jake Paul suffered his first career knockout loss on Friday to former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Former two-division UFC titleholder Daniel Cormier thought that the result was a forgone conclusion the moment the fight was booked.
“Some people believe in fairytales. Whoever believed that Jake Paul was going to win, that was an absolute fairytale,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “There was never a world in which Jake Paul was going to beat Anthony Joshua. It was always a matter of how the fight would end.”
Joshua represented the boxing establishment and was expected to do what he did. He couldn’t lose to an influencer, but Cormier believes Paul has become more of a boxer than an influence these days.
“He was representing boxing so they wanted him to get the job done. First and foremost, you can’t lose to a guy that perceived to be a YouTuber. Even though today, Jake Paul is more boxer than YouTuber,” Cormier said.
“I’ve said this time and time again, when you have resources, when you can spend a million dollars a year on training camps, housing, food, coaches, this is not recreational anymore. He’s a boxer. He’s just not a boxer at that level.”
Joshua had difficulty early finding Paul with his punches, but as the fight played out it became obvious that Joshua was on the cusp of finishing Paul. Paul became fatigued. His ability to stay on the move declined. Once he became a stationary target, Joshua put him away. In the fifth round, Joshua knocked Paul down twice.
Related: Former two-time UFC champion: ‘Anthony Joshua carried Jake Paul to the sixth round’
“In the sixth round, you could just tell this fight was over. You knew that Anthony Joshua was eventually going to land something that hurt Jake Paul,” said Cormier.
“That right hand, oh my God. He took all of that right hand. You could see in his face, he was like, ‘Okay, now I understand boxing.’ Now I understand like at its worst what boxing can be because he got hit clean by one of the biggest punchers.”
Paul suffered a broken jaw in the loss and underweight surgery that required two titanium plates and several teeth to be removed.
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