Eddie Hearn: Joshua vs. Paul Could Be ‘Biggest Fight In Boxing’ Commercially

Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul is “the biggest fight in boxing” commercially. He now sees the potential of this fight being the biggest one out there. Hearn revealed on Sunday that the talks are in an “advanced” stage for the Joshua-Paul fight, and he believes it will happen.

Hearn’s ‘Advanced’ Fight Negotiations

“I would say advanced is the word that click baiters would produce,” said Eddie Hearn to The Stomping Ground about how far along he is in negotiations for a fight between Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul. “I never really expected this fight to happen, but the more conversations I have, the more I think there’s a very good chance it can happen.”

Much has changed in Jake Paul’s career to make him an appealing option for Josua to fight now. He had his two fights with Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. that attracted a lot of attention. Hearn’s four-fight rebuild of AJ was an utter failure.

“I believe Jake Paul wants the fight. Don’t ask me, but he believes he can win, and that’s even more dangerous. You can go in and think, ‘Well, if I get hurt.’ No, he’s convinced he beats Anthony Joshua,” said Hearn. “Be careful what you wish for because this is not what you’re used to. Respect for taking the challenge, and we’ll see if it comes off.”

Jake knows what he sees. AJ is thoroughly washed at this point, his chin gone, and the only thing he has left is his power. But that’s not enough for him to count on beating Paul because, unless he lands early, he’s going to end up getting knocked out like he did in his last fight against Daniel Dubois. There’s nothing left of the Joshua that turned pro in 2013. I know that’s hard for Hearn to accept, but it’s the reality. AJ’s punch resistance is gone, and he’s barely holding on to what’s left of his career.

‘Biggest Fight’ in Boxing

“Numbers-wise, probably,” said Hearn, reacting to being told that Frank Smith said Joshua vs. Paul is bigger than Joshua vs. Tyson Fury. “Obviously, for boxing, AJ-Fury is the one, but I do understand that commercially, this is probably the biggest fight in boxing,” Hearn said about Joshua vs. Paul.

Joshua-Paul not only will likely do better numbers than Joshua vs. Fury, but also Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford. Jake Paul has a larger public profile and social media following than Canelo, which means he can advertise directly to his 28 million Instagram followers and 20.9 million YouTube subscribers. Alvarez doesn’t have that kind of reach, and, of course, Crawford isn’t in the same galaxy as Paul. He’s a fighter on the margins in comparison.

“I’m not going to tell you it’s a fight of the year contender. I’m not going to tell you it’s competitive. I think it’s a mismatch, and I think it’ll mean that Jake Paul will leave the sport forever. Because I don’t think he’ll ever step back into the ring after he gets chinned by Anthony Joshua,” said Hearn. “There are a lot of people who would love to see that.”

The Financial Power of Jake Paul

Hearn seems determined to see Jake Paul leave the sport for some reason. I wonder why there’s so much animosity toward him when he’s doing AJ a big favor by giving him a fight this late in his career. It’s not like Joshua has any other options to get a giant payday at this point. The only other fight that he could potentially get that would pay well is against Tyson Fury, but he’s not coming back to face him. As such, Jake is the only fight out there for Joshua.

“People say to me, ‘What does Anthony get out of it?’ He gets to be involved in one of the biggest events of all time. Obviously, he probably gets a career-high payday, and more importantly, we get to say, ‘Cheerio, Mr. Paul,’” said Hearn.

Eddie hasn’t said what Joshua will do if he loses the fight to Jake Paul. Will we be saying goodbye to AJ? It’s hard to imagine him fighting on if he gets knocked out by Paul in a similar fashion to how he was in his last fight against Daniel Dubois. I guess they could have a Joshua vs. Paul rematch, which would make a lot of money. But to do that, Hearn could have to cook up some good excuses to explain why AJ lost.