Bravery Or Embarrassment? Paul Does Everything Except Box Joshua

Jake Paul’s performance versus Anthony Joshua last night (Fri., Dec. 19, 2025) was both undeniably courageous and fairly embarrassing (highlights here).

On one hand, Paul stepped up against a much bigger and better boxer and ultimately took his lumps. When the chips were down, he planted his feet and threw hard. He survived way longer than most of us expected against an “AJ” who was genuinely trying to take his head off from the first bell. In the process of their six-round collision, he actually landed some decent shots, including at least one full power overhand that connected on the chin.

He gave himself a chance, and that counts for something. Maybe he even won a round!

Unfortunately, I don’t know that what Paul was doing can really be described as boxing. Circling the outside and changing directions constantly with his hands low, Paul repeatedly slipped punches to enter the clinch with his head on the outside, circling towards the back. Early on, these were legal boxing clinches, but by the fourth round they really started to consistently resemble double leg takedown attempts.

Lateral movement, darting punches, head-outside running doubles — I could be describing Dominick Cruz, and yet those are the tactics Paul employed. He basically did everything possible to avoid a boxing match within the confines of a boxing ring.

While fatigue ultimately did Paul in and cost him the nasty knockout loss, it was the referee cracking down on the rules that really cost him. After telling him off for the takedown nonsense, Paul continued to hit his knees while ducking into clinches in the fifth. The referee started ruling these shots knockdowns, which had an immediate impact.

Unable to panic wrestle without penalization, Paul was forced to trade in the sixth and wound up with a broken jaw soon afterward. Once Paul was forced into a boxing match, the contest lasted a few minutes at best … which is what a lot of us predicted in the first place!

In the aftermath of this spectacle, Paul will focus on the positives to sell himself. He’ll talk about his toughness in trading with Anthony Joshua, likely accompanied by a still of the rare punch that landed while Joshua was trying to track him down. Joshua was supposed to take him out inside six minutes, and yet Paul survived into the sixth round.

There are moral victories here for Paul and facts that look good on paper. A Paul fan, for example, could point out that Paul survived much longer than Francis Ngannou and landed more punches as well. With the right spin and a bit of MMA-style mathematics, this means Paul is obviously a better boxer than “The Predator.”

Anybody who watched knows the truth, however. He frustrated Joshua at times with his keep-away footwork and scholastic wrestling-influenced clinch work, not his technical boxing developments. This performance did nothing to convince anyone that Paul will have a chance the next time he steps into the ring with an elite boxer, if indeed he ever makes that play again.

It also just wasn’t a ton of fun to watch, which could be said of many Paul fights. If Paul is going to run away from great boxers as a means of survival, how many times can that trick be played before the greater sports community as a whole stops tuning in? Paul has likely earned himself at least one more Netflix super fight with this showing, but he’ll have to pick his opponent carefully and actually box.

There cannot be a repeat performance … unless he actually wants to live up to his old PFL promises.

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