Jake Paul is turning heads by challenging former boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The pre-fight narrative: Paul is 12-1 as a pro but is taking a massive leap in competition. His opponent is 28-4 with 24 knockouts and has been in the ring with some of the greatest heavyweight boxers of this generation. Because of that, Joshua is a massive -1,000 favourite to get his hand raised.
Check out my Paul vs. Joshua predictions for the Dec. 19 fight in Miami.
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Paul vs. Joshua predictions
Best bet: Over 2.5 rounds (-115)
Here's the thing: Paul is a legit pro boxer now, and he will have a sound game plan going into this bout.
That doesn't mean I think the underdog has a real shot to win, but I think he'll come in with a very slow approach, looking for one clean fight-ending shot.
And it's not like Joshua can simply walk through the fire. He'll need to be responsible defensively against Paul, who's going to be legit heavyweight size for this matchup.
After all, a loss here is more embarrassing for Joshua, who's the former champion. He will take this fight seriously.
-> Bet on Paul vs. Joshua here
I expect a lot of feints and movement from Paul early on, which will help him avoid any big shots.
Once the Englishman gets his reads, he should start to do damage to Paul, but this low total doesn't give him enough time to do so.
This fight is scheduled to be eight rounds, so there's no need for Joshua to rush into a mistake.
Only one of Joshua's past 16 fights has gone under this total. That was against Francis Ngannou, who is a former UFC champion.
But the fact is, Ngannou had no head movement and showed worse boxing fundamentals than Paul will.
Paul has never been knocked out. His one career loss was a split decision to Tommy Fury.
Paul vs. Joshua predictions made at 3:15 p.m. ET on Dec. 14, 2025.
