David Haye says he fears for Jake Paul’s life ahead of his eight-round fight against Anthony Joshua on December 19 at the Kaseya Centre, Miami, Florida. He sets the Joshua-Paul battle “don’t” happen, and hope that “Paramedics” is close.
Jake Paul’s risk factor
It’s a fight that could blow up in Joshua’s face, with him being fueled by the younger, faster, more active and still hungry Jake Paul.
Retired former two-division champion Haye doesn’t believe YouTuber boxer Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) has any chance of winning against Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs). He predicts an ugly outcome if AJ traps the 28-year-old Paul and knocks him down with shots at some point in the fight.
Given the age difference and how the 36-year-old Joshua looked in his last fight against Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024, Haye should be concerned about his safety. Joshua was in trouble from the opening minute against Dubois, who is hardly a world champion.
This is the only decent fighter AJ has fought in the past three years since suffering back-to-back losses to former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022.
Joshua’s only four wins in the last five years, since 2020, have come against these bottom feeders:
- Francis Ngannou (Malarch 8, 2024) – 2nd round KO
- Otto Wallin (December 23, 2023) – 5th round stoppage
- Robert Helenius (August 12, 2023) – 7th round KO
- Jermaine Franklin (April 1, 2023) – 12-round unanimous decision
“If Jake Paul is left behind with Anthony Joshua unloading on him, it could be the end for him. It could be his last day on earth,” said David Haye. Sky Sports Boxingwhich portends a potential bad ending for Jake in his eight-round fight against Joshua on December 19 in Miami.
AJ’s recent decline
Some fans will argue that Joshua was never that good of a fighter off the jump. Like Tyson Fury, he carved out a career beating 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko and used a victory over the former King of the heavyweight division, along with a controversial 2012 Olympic gold medal, to make a huge fortune.
If AJ is the artificial fighter that some believe him to be, Jake Paul has an excellent chance to beat him and put the spotlight on his limitations.
Whatever Joshua was, he’s not that fighter anymore, and his punching resistance seems to have completely abandoned him at 36. Jake has the punching power to do a similar job on Joshua that Dubois did last year by knocking him out in five rounds. It could be faster because Paul is more athletic than Dubois and not robotic like him.
“It shouldn’t go ahead. There’s no reason for it to go ahead,” Haye said, expressing his view that Joshua vs. Paul should not happen. “There’s no reason to go ahead. It’s going to be brutal. I hope they have good paramedics around.”
One wonders if Haye is jealous of Jake getting the opportunity to fight Joshua instead of himself. He never got that fight during his career, and it would have been a massive one.
With the money Joshua is going to get, which according to his promoter, Eddie Hearn, is in the same region as the $80 million+ he received for his December 2019 rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr, why wouldn’t he take this fight?
Last updated on 18/11/2025
