British-Nigerian heavyweight, Anthony Joshua stands to earn £70m from a proposed fight with YouTuber-turned-boxer, Jake Paul, with negotiations ongoing for a bout in Miami next month.
Sources close to the talks have revealed that a gargantuan prize pot of around £140m has been mooted, with plans for an even split between the two-time heavyweight world champion and Paul.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, stressed on Thursday that any deal is not yet finalised over what would be the 36-year-old’s first fight since he was crushed by Daniel Dubois 14 months ago. However, there is an expectation amongst those connected to the talks that it could be confirmed early next week.
Significantly, the fight would not be billed as an ‘exhibition’ but as a sanctioned, professional bout following Queensbury rules.
A key element behind the fight is the desire to broadcast it on Netflix. The streaming giant is currently working with Joshua on a documentary, which dovetails with Paul’s own interests.
Paul’s fight against 58-year-old Mike Tyson in November 2024 was staged on Netflix and drew an audience exceeding 60 million viewers.
The collapse of Paul’s scheduled fight with lightweight world champion Gervonta Davis has opened the door to hasty discussions between the camps of Paul and Joshua after more than a year of rumours around the possibility.
“It is not done yet,” Hearn told Daily Mail Sport.
“There has been a lot of gun jumping on this. I think Jake Paul would be mad to take the fight, but we are in talks. We were discussing a very low-key fight for AJ, but an opportunity has come up to make 50 times more money.”
The promoter acknowledged the controversial nature of the match-up, saying, “Would it be great for Joshua’s legacy? No. But I’ll tell you what is – two-time heavyweight world champion and an Olympic gold medal. This is an opportunity and fair play to Paul if he wants to get in that ring because AJ won’t be messing about.”
Paul’s 12-1 record across the past five years has been built against nobodies and elderly stars, with his sole loss coming against Tommy Fury, the younger brother of Tyson Fury.
Frank Warren, who promotes Tyson Fury, told Daily Mail Sport, “People are going to criticise it, but I don’t see it that way.
As long as these guys are both fit, which they are, then I don’t have a problem. It will get a huge audience – AJ doesn’t cause a lot of noise in the US, and Paul does. People like car crashes. It will do well.”
Joshua’s focus, beyond expanding his existing fortune, is shedding the rust of inactivity. Having returned to light training in the early part of the year, he underwent surgery on a minor elbow injury in May and resumed intense workouts in October.
Credit: punchng.com
