Jake Paul In “Dangerous” Fight vs Anthony Joshua

David Benavidez says Jake Paul is in a “dangerous” situation Anthony Joshua fights next month in their December 19 fight. He believes that Joshua’s huge experience advantage will be too much for Paul (12-1, 7 KOs).

AJ’s experience is the difference

It was announced earlier today that former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) will fight Paul on Netflix at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. Benavidez says the last inexperienced fighter Joshua fought, Francis Ngannou, was vaporized in two rounds. He believes that Jake may suffer a similar fate.

“I’m going to be as brutally honest as I can be. I give 100% respect to Jake Paul, but it’s a dangerous fight for him. He’s probably knocked out,” David Benavidez said Fight Hub TVwho predicted a victory for Anthony Joshua over Jake Paul in their eight-round contest on December 19.

Joshua’s Vulnerable First Rounds

Joshua may be the one knocked out in this fight if he gets knocked clean by Jake Paul in the first two rounds. AJ was knocked out in the first round by Daniel Dubois in their fight on September 21, 2024. It came with just 0:06 left in the first round. Paul has a chance if he can get Joshua in trouble early in the game before he ramps up his offense. However, the longer the fight goes on, the less chance Jake has of winning. He must catch Joshua cold.

“I’m not trying to be a hater and say nothing bad. But Anthony Joshua is Anthony Joshua. He’s a multiple champion, an Olympic (2012) gold medalist. The last time somebody stepped in the ring with him that didn’t have that much boxing experience was (Francis) Ngannou. You saw what happened to him,” Benavidez said.

Ngannou is not as good a boxer as Jake Paul. He is an MMA guy who took up boxing briefly and stopped fighting after losing non-judged fights to Joshua and Tyson Fury. He looked decent against the shell of Fury, but only because of how much ‘The Gypsy King’ has lost his game due to age. Fury has developed a bad habit of using his size to lean on his opponents. That approach didn’t work against Ngannou with his grappling skills.

Money drives this game

“Big respect to Jake Paul. It’s going to be a good card. It’s going to be a big, big fight. It’s a good fight. I give 100% respect to Jake Paul for even taking that fight,” Benavidez said. “It’s a lot of money. They’re going to generate a lot of money with that fight. So, I’m pretty sure that’s 100% why he took that fight,” Benavidez said when asked why Joshua agreed to fight Jake Paul.

Of course money is the #1 reason Joshua agreed to fight Jake Paul. As Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn pointed out, AJ could make more money fighting him than anyone other than Tyson Fury. And with him the dough would be even.

The other reason Joshua is fighting Paul is that he has been inactive for over a year and is coming off a fifth round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024. Hearn said that the alternative is for AJ to take a “run out” fight against a top-100 ranked fighter on the undercard.

The money he would have made in that fight would have been next to nothing. Plus, there would be little value for Joshua to fight a lower-level guy who wouldn’t give him anything in terms of a competitive fight. Jake Paul is a bigger payday, and there’s a chance Joshua could lose because this guy has power. If Joshua gets reckless, Paul will knock him out.