Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul: Tommy Fury’s Two-Minute Theory on a “Paid Off” Match

Tommy Fury questions whether Anthony Joshua will intentionally throw his fight against Jake Paul after being paid off. Fury says that if the fight lasts past two minutes of the first round, he’ll assume that Joshua was “paid off” by someone.

Tommy doesn’t believe that Jake Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) has the kind of talent to compete with the former two-time heavyweight champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs).

A Champion’s Declining Punch Resistance

That may have been the case earlier in Joshua’s career, but he’s older now, and his punch resistance is no longer there. Paul, 28, is a lot younger than AJ, and he has the kind of power that will enable him to finish off what’s left of him.

“Money is a very powerful thing in this world. But if it goes past two minutes of the opening round, I’ll take that in AJ’s been paid off,” said Tommy Fury to the Stomping Ground channel, giving his thoughts on the Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul fight.

“I think it’s going to take a lot of money for that to happen, and if it does, I think it’ll be very upsetting for everybody. But you can’t rule it out because that’s where boxing is today. If I can beat Jake Paul, what is Anthony Joshua going to do to him? Even if AJ had a broken arm in there, it still wouldn’t go past a minute,” said Tommy.

What Fury is failing to acknowledge is how brittle Joshua’s chin is at this point in his 12-year professional career. He’s coming off a brutal fifth-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois last September. Before that, he’d fought four cupcakes after losing consecutive fights against Oleksandr Usyk.

Eddie Hearn’s Clever Matchmaking

Moreover, Joshua is not young, and never was a great fighter to begin with. He turns 36 in October, and his punching resistance is gone. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, has worked his magic to keep his career going through his clever matchmaking, avoiding the dangerous opposition until recently. Without Hearn pulling the strings like a puppeteer, Joshua’s career would have gone belly up many years ago.

Even in Joshua’s loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019, that was initially a cherry-pick on Hearn’s part, selecting a career-long fringe contender as his replacement opponent.

“As a safety aspect, there’s no way that fight can go ahead if one of them is not paid off. AJ can be paid a lot of money to not throw a punch for eight rounds,” said Tommy.

Fury is really reaching here with his sinister speculation about the Joshua-Paul fight. You can’t help thinking he’s a bit jealous, seeing Paul about to rake in a massive payday fighting Joshua. AJ’s purse for the fight could be over $100 million. There is so much money for both fighters to take in from this clash. Meanwhile, Tommy Fury’s career hasn’t taken off since his narrow, clinch-filled victory over Paul in 2023.