When all was said and done, Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul ended the way every single boxing expert imagined it would, with ‘The Problem Child’ being counted out. But that was only part of the story in Miami on Friday night.
Joshua’s thudding right hand in Round 6 closed the show as referee Christopher Young reached the count of 10, but before that moment we had to endure more than 15 minutes of utter boredom as he ran and rugby-tackled his way around the ring in pure survival mode.
It was an unedifying spectacle which was roundly booed by the fans inside Kaseya Center, and doubtless by plenty of others watching around the world on Netflix.
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As a boxing writer for more than 30 years, even I am struggling to work out exactly what I saw in the ring in Florida on Friday night. Whatever it was, I know it was not good for the sport. Fair play to Paul for getting in there (he did get paid north of £50million to do so) but let’s end the talk of him being a world champion one day, right now.
All the talk beforehand had been full of conspiracy theories – that if the bout went more than a round ‘it must be rigged, AJ is holding Jake up’. So what was the update on those theories after the event?
Nakisa Bidarian on ‘rigged’ theories
Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions co-rounder Nakisa Bidarian spoke at length, and he had an intriguing take on what the narrative might be now.
He said: “It was interesting. Every time I spoke about this as a dangerous fight or put out a tweet that said no matter what happens, he’s already won, it turned into ‘you don’t even believe in your man’. But on the flip side was ‘the event is rigged, Jake’s going to win’ or ‘he’s not going to knock him out’.
“Maybe the powers that be in boxing paid Jake Paul a loss tonight. Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe it was a flip rigged, right? Jake was going to kick AJ’s ass. But the reality is, my hope was that nobody would get hurt from the first fight of the night to the last fight of the night. And ultimately that’s what happened.”
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Whatever the conspiracy theories, Bidarian was both happy that Jake emerged relatively unscathed from the bout (barring that broken jaw) and that he had earned wider respect for even taking the fight.
“I could not be happier with the fact that Jake is safe, and more so that he showed his heart. I don’t know if you guys were looking on Twitter, but until about 20 minutes ago, the number one trending thing on Twitter wasn’t Jake Paul getting knocked out, wasn’t Jake Paul, wasn’t Anthony Joshua. It literally was the phrase #RespectForJakePaul. And I can tell you guys, I have so much respect for that young man.”
The real reason Jake Paul lost
Bidarian also had a take on why AJ had ultimately prevailed, believing it was sheer physical size rather than superior skills.
“The reality is Jake lost because of the size difference, not because of the skill difference. AJ was hanging on that neck, pushing him down. And when you have someone that heavy constantly doing that, it does suck the energy out of you. AJ talked about sucking out or taking out the man’s soul. He didn’t take out his soul. He did take out his energy, and that’s when he was able to get the finish.”
While Paul was very much the A side in this fight (incredibly) in the US, he is still seen as something of a circus in the UK. Bidarian says maybe it is time for that to change.
“I’m going to leave you guys with this. I saw a lot of comments, particularly from the UK, about Jake Paul as a novice boxer who shouldn’t be in the ring with Anthony Joshua. He took some rounds from Anthony Joshua.
“It took Anthony Joshua six rounds to put out a man who’s been in the sport for six years and took on the challenge in four weeks, so put some respect on Jake Paul’s name in the UK.”
