Anthony Joshua revealed today that Oleksandr Usyk’s team will train him for his fight against Jake Paul on December 19, 2025, on Netflix at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
(Credit: Ester Lin/Most Valuable Promotions)
Why team Usyk?
Typically, AJ (28-4, 25 KOs) is coached by Ben Davisonbut he’s going all out for this one, choosing to go with Team Usyk for the eight-round fight against Jake. This move should be seen as a sign of concern as this is a fight in which Joshua cannot afford to lose or look bad.
Joshua’s chin problem
Usyk’s team won’t be able to do anything to fix Joshua’s striking resistance. This is a problem that is beyond a coaching solution. If he gets beaten cleanly by Jake, it won’t matter how many tricks Usyk’s team taught him. He will go down, and he may not get up.
The 6’1″ Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) looked significantly smaller than the 6’6′ Joshua during their kickoff today during their kickoff conference. However, being shorter will give Jake an advantage as he is a height that Joshua is not used to fighting at.
The hitting that comes up can be difficult for him to judge. With Paul’s power, he has more than enough to knock out AJ in front of the millions watching the competition on Netflix.
Jake’s KO blueprint
“I think a fourth or fifth round knockout by me,” says Jake Paul for his prediction against Anthony Joshua. “Anthony. Yeah, 1000%,” Paul says about who has more pressure on them in his clash against AJ.
The five-round prediction is an excellent one for Jake. By then he either KOs Joshua or gets stopped himself. Joshua was all over the place in his last fight against Daniel Dubois, getting knocked down in rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 on September 21, 2024. If Dubois was a better finisher, he would have taken AJ out in the first round because he’s gone.
“I’m going in there, I can fight free. If he starts getting hurt and losing rounds, I think the cookie will crumble,” says Paul about how Joshua will get mentally impatient when things start to go badly for him on December 19.
Historically, when things start to fall apart for Joshua in his fights, they tend to stay that way. The only instance where he turned things around was his fight against 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko on April 29, 2017.
In that fight, Wladimir dropped Joshua in the sixth round, hurting and gassing him from seven to ten. Instead of finishing him, Wladimir inexplicably chose to box him from the outside. In the 11th, Joshua got his second wind and knocked out Klitschko. In hindsight, AJ should have been KO’d if Wladimir had fought with any sense. If Jake Paul Joshua finds himself in a similar situation on December 19, he won’t let him off the hook.
Ben Davison Benched
“I will not be trained by Ben Davidson. I have been invited to train with Team Usyk. We did good training in Spain, and I think he (Oleksander Usyk) is one of the best in the world,” Joshua said of training with Oleksandr Usyk’s team for this fight.
Why it can backfire
Changing trainers for this fight may not be the smartest move for Joshua as he has to fight with a system he is used to. If he is painting according to the number systemone he is not comfortable with, Jake can take advantage of.
“I’m going to bring him to another boxing school that I think he hasn’t been exposed to yet. So there’s a few tricks up my sleeve to show Jake on December 19,” Joshua said.
AJ’s best strategy should be to come out swinging, throwing power shots to try and get Jake out as quickly as possible. The longer he leaves Paul out there, the more likely he is to get knocked out by the younger fighter.
Last updated on 21/11/2025
